THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 DANTE
 
 VOLUMES IN THIS SERIES 
 Published and in Preparation 
 
 Edited by WILL D. HOWE 
 
 ARNOLD Stuart P. Sherman 
 
 BROWNING William Lyon Phelps 
 
 BURNS W. A. Neilson 
 
 CARLYLE Bliss Perry 
 
 DANTE Alfred M. Brooks 
 
 DEFOE William P. Trent 
 
 DICKENS Richard Burton 
 
 EMERSON Samuel M. Crothers 
 
 HAWTHORNE George E. Woodberry 
 
 IBSEN Archibald Henderson 
 
 LAMB Will D. Howe 
 
 LOWELL John H. Finley 
 
 STEVENSON Richard A. Rice 
 
 TENNYSON Raymond M. Alden 
 
 WHITMAN Brand Whitlock 
 
 WORDSWORTH G. T. Winchester 
 
 Etc., Etc.
 
 DANTE
 
 DANTE 
 
 HOW TO KNOW HIM 
 
 By 
 ALFRED M. BROOKS 
 
 Professor of Fine Arts, Indiana University 
 
 Author of 
 ARCHITECTURE AND THE ALLIED ARTS, ETC. 
 
 With Portrait 
 
 (Q27 
 
 INDIANAPOLIS 
 
 THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY 
 PUBLISHERS
 
 COPYRIGHT 1916 
 THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY 
 
 PRESS of 
 
 BRAUNWOHTH i CO. 
 
 BOOKBINDERS AND PRINTERS 
 
 BROOKLYN. M.
 
 To 
 
 N. S. 
 
 and 
 
 M. S. 
 
 1325359
 
 "I think, if I were professor of rhetoric teacher 
 of the art of writing well to young men I should 
 use Dante for my text-book. Come hither, youth, 
 and learn how the brook that flows at the bottom of 
 your garden, or the farmer who ploughs the adja- 
 cent field, your father and mother, your debts and 
 credits, and your web of habits are the very best 
 basis of poetry, and the material which you must 
 work up. Dante knew how to throw the weight of 
 his body into each act, and is, like Byron, Burke, 
 
 and Carlyle, the rhetorician." 
 
 EMERSON.
 
 PREFACE 
 
 The purpose of this book is to make some of the 
 unparalleled beauty and common sense of The 
 Divine Comedy accessible to many who are wholly 
 unfamiliar with the poem, or are kept from it by its 
 reputed difficulties. To this end, after some brief 
 explanation of these difficulties, we turn at once to 
 representative passages, for the most part translated 
 outright, but in some instances paraphrased or con- 
 densed. These passages give the complete unfold- 
 ing of the story, together with its moral and phil- 
 osophical significance. That some entire cantos are 
 omitted from Hell, while no entire canto is omitted 
 from Purgatory, or Paradise, is because condensa- 
 tion is imperative in such a book. The condensation 
 has been made mostly in the Hell, because less of 
 it is required to impress a new reader with an under- 
 standing of its essential character than is required 
 to impress such a reader with the very different but 
 not less essential character of Purgatory or Para- 
 dise. Long ago Lowell pointed out the misfortune
 
 PREFACE 
 
 which comes of reading only Hell, and that a real 
 love for Dante was to be known or measured by 
 one's interest in and affection for his Paradise and 
 Purgatory. In such degree as we come to know 
 The Divine Comedy must we come to know its au- 
 thor, Dante, every line of whose works proves him 
 to have been, and to be, one of the noblest of earth's 
 sons and Heaven's heirs, because he realized as few 
 men do "the sacredness of life's actual experiences. " 
 
 Every one who has in him the love of poetry, 
 particularly dramatic poetry, and many a one who 
 believes that he has not, finds himself facing life 
 from a fresh angle when he makes acquaintance 
 with Dante, through his famous drama of justice 
 based on love and hate. Old as his drama is, it is 
 ever new, because it portrays, as no other, the per- 
 manent passions of the human race and their un- 
 changing consequences, generation after generation. 
 Lowell said: "The benignities of literature defy 
 fortune and outlive calamity." Of Dante's work 
 this is specially true. 
 
 The Divine Comedy is one of the world's largest 
 assets on the ledger wherein is kept the account of
 
 PREFACE 
 
 its humanities. It is a vast treasure placed to every 
 man's credit in a bank that never fails. To help 
 those who have not done so, to make a first draft on 
 this account; to set within reach some of the most 
 extraordinary benignities of all literature, remem- 
 bering the while that to him who hath more shall be 
 
 given, is the aim of this book. 
 
 A. M. B.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 INTRODUCTORY PAGE 
 
 THE POET 1 
 
 SOCIAL, ARTISTIC AND POLITICAL CONDITIONS OF 
 
 DANTE'S TIME 6 
 
 VITA NUOVA 15 
 
 THE POEM AND ITS STYLE 20 
 
 THE STORY OF THE DIVINE COMEDY 23 
 
 THE STAGE 28 
 
 THE ACTORS 36 
 
 TIME IN THE DIVINE COMEDY 39 
 
 FREEDOM OF THE WILL THE CORNER-STONE OF 
 
 DANTE'S BELIEF 40 
 
 Two WAYS OF READING THE DIVINE COMEDY . . 42 
 
 HELL 49 
 
 PURGATORY 141 
 
 PARADISE 261 
 
 INDEX 373
 
 DANTE 
 
 THE POET 
 
 THE DIVINE COMEDY is one of those 
 works of literature which from their first ap- 
 pearance command an ever-increasing number of 
 readers. It is a book in which depth of human 
 thinking answers unto depth. Because it deals with 
 those questions only, which are of perennial con- 
 cern to man, in every generation, it is an undying 
 book. It is one of those works of literature which 
 soon cease to belong exclusively to the nation that 
 bore them, or the tongue in which they were com- 
 posed, and become the common and precious posses- 
 sion of many tongues and nations. It was the gen- 
 ius of the thirteenth-century Italy that made The 
 Divine Comedy possible ; an Italian man who wrote 
 it. It is the glory of Italy; the supreme monu- 
 ment of her literature, but it has become the pos- 
 session of many peoples and, increasingly, year by 
 year, the delight of all who love the clear setting- 
 forth of truth, ugly or lovely, in the beautiful guise 
 of art. Its place in the empire of letters was never 
 more justly assigned than by Tennyson who, when 
 
 1
 
 2 DANTE 
 
 called on for verses to celebrate the six hundredth 
 anniversary of Dante's birth, wrote: 
 
 "King, that hast rcign'd six hundred years, and grown 
 
 In power, and ever growest, . . . 
 
 I, wearing but the garland of a day, 
 
 Cast at thy feet one flower that fades away." 
 
 In his Dante, one of the best essays James Rus- 
 sell Lowell ever wrote, and one of the simplest, most 
 profound and most illuminating treatises on the 
 
 poet, his time and work, he says: 
 
 t' 
 
 "Perhaps no other man could have called forth 
 such an expression as that of Ruskin that 'the cen- 
 tral man of all the world, as representing in perfect 
 balance the imaginative, moral, and intellectual fac- 
 ulties, all at their highest, is Dante.' ' 
 
 It would be an easy matter to make a long book 
 out of the praises of famous men in every walk of 
 life who, through the centuries, have lifted their 
 voices in laud of the great Florentine, but that is 
 in no sense the present purpose. The opinion of one 
 more, Thomas Carlyle, and we have done ; the opin- 
 ion of a man whose own works, like Dante's, are 
 famous for the way in which they illustrate his 
 faith that, "the first of all gospels is that a lie can 
 not endure forever." Coupling Dante and Shakes- 
 peare he calls them "a peculiar two." Then he says :
 
 DANTE 3 
 
 "They dwell apart, in a kind of royal solitude; 
 none equal, none second to them; in the general 
 feeling of the world, a certain transcendentalism, a 
 glory as of complete perfection, invests these two." 
 
 In the ordinary sense of the phrase very little 
 is known with certainty about the life of Dante be- 
 yond a few dates, and scanty records of positions 
 of responsibility and trust which he held. 
 
 The main sources of external information are, 
 first the famous chronicle, or history of Florence, 
 written by Giovanni Villani, a contemporary and 
 neighbor of Dante's. This book contains one chap- 
 ter on the poet. It is the most reliable biography of 
 Dante. 
 
 Another is the eulogy, or Short Treatise in 
 Praise of Dante, written after his death, by Boc- 
 caccio. A war of opinions as to the value of the 
 information in this treatise has long been waged. 
 
 "The Dante currently known, down even to the 
 present day, is essentially the Dante depicted by 
 Boccaccio." That the imaginative author of the 
 Decameron took great liberty with such facts 
 as he possessed, and without hesitation made up 
 what he lacked, is the opinion of the bulk of au- 
 thorities. On the other hand, "the chief of living 
 Dante scholars" says: "Most grateful should we 
 be to Boccaccio for this precious heritage; for, not 
 only is it recorded in his own delicious and imag- 
 inative prose, not only is the portrait traced with
 
 4 DANTE 
 
 loving and skilful hand, but without it we should 
 not have possessed any such portraiture at all." 
 
 It was the word portrait of Boccaccio, and the 
 picture painted by Giotto, Dante's contemporary 
 and friend, that together furnished Carlyle with 
 the materials for one of the most remarkable de- 
 scriptions of a man in English prose. Although 
 this famous picture is still commonly known as 
 Giotto's, investigation seems to show that Vasari, 
 chief biographer of the Italian artists, was wrong 
 in ascribing the work to Giotto. It is now assigned 
 to Taddeo Gaddi, Giotto's pupil, and the date fixed 
 is 1337. It is possible that Gaddi had a drawing 
 of Dante, made by Giotto, in early life. At all 
 events this picture shows Dante as a young man 
 in whose face great seriousness and simplicity 
 are evident, but by no means all of what Carlyle 
 ascribes to the conquered and unconquerable hero- 
 poet. Many of the qualities which constitute the 
 greatness of Carlyle's picture are due to Car- 
 lyle's own comprehension of his subject, yet, many 
 of those qualities were for the first time brought 
 out in Boccaccio's eulogy. It is Carlyle who, with 
 sympathy both delicate and virile, looking on what 
 was painted, thinking on what was written, fired 
 to fever heat of imagination, yet cool of judgment 
 in the intimate presence of Dante's work, came to 
 know Dante, and, knowing, drew this portrait in 
 nineteenth-century English words. Every bit of
 
 DANTE 5 
 
 the true understanding of Dante, of his life and his 
 reactions to life, which can be got from the best 
 source of all, his works by which alone he can be 
 really known every touch of such understanding 
 is deepened, and made certain, and vivified by this 
 unsurpassed portrait in Heroes and Hero Worship. 
 
 "A most touching face; perhaps of all the faces 
 that I know, the most so. Lonely there, painted as 
 on vacancy, with the simple laurel wound round it; 
 the deathless sorrow and pain, the known victory 
 which is also deathless significant of the whole 
 history of Dante! I think it is the mournfullest 
 face that was ever painted from reality; an alto- 
 gether tragic, heart-affecting face. There is in it, 
 as foundation of it, the softness, tenderness, gentle 
 affection as of a child; but all this is as if congealed 
 into short contradiction, into abnegation, isolation, 
 proud hopeless pain. A soft ethereal soul looking 
 out so stern, implacable, grim-trenchant, as from 
 imprisonment of thick ribbed ice! Withal it is a 
 silent pain, too, a silent scornful one; the lip is 
 curled in a kind of god-like disdainment of the 
 thing that is eating out his heart as if it were 
 withal a mean insignificant thing, as if he whom 
 it had power to torture and strangle were greater 
 than it. The face of one wholly in protest, and 
 lifelong unsurrendering battle, against the world. 
 Affection all converted into indignation; an im-
 
 placable indignation; slow, equable, silent, like that 
 of a god! The eye, too, it looks out as in a kind 
 of surprise, a kind of inquiry, Why the world was 
 of such a sort? This is Dante: so he looks, this 
 voice of ten silent centuries, and sings us 'his mystic 
 unfathomable song.' ' 
 
 The established facts of Dante's life can be set 
 forth almost in a sentence. A paragraph is more 
 than enough. He was born in Florence and came 
 of good family. The year was 1265. He was mar- 
 ried, probably in 1291, and he had children who 
 survived him. Owing to political disputes he 
 was banished from Florence. This happened in 
 1302. That he wandered for some time from place 
 to place and at last found a hospitable welcome and 
 home in Ravenna is certain, as it is also certain that 
 he died in Ravenna in 1321. His bones lie in Ra- 
 venna to this day. 
 
 SOCIAL, ARTISTIC AND POLITICAL CONDITIONS 
 OF DANTE'S TIME 
 
 Of the social, political and religious aspects of 
 Dante's age, history records much. Of the actual 
 look of the four chief cities associated with his 
 name, its honor and dishonor, Florence, Bologna, 
 Verona and Ravenna, of the actual appearance of 
 the stage, so to speak, on which Dante lived his life 
 and acted his famous part, we know a great deal.
 
 DANTE 7 
 
 Many an ancient building has come down intact, 
 and many old pictures of what was in the thirteenth 
 century and is no more, are still extant. 
 
 In Dante's day Italy, figuratively speaking, was 
 like a household rent by double strife parents fight- 
 ing each other, the children taking now one and 
 now the other side ; when by chance there might be 
 peace, or more truly a cessation of warfare between 
 the parents, then the children formed parties of 
 their own and fought one another. And yet most 
 strange as it sounds there was beneath the universal 
 bickering a really wonderful identity of purpose, 
 an underlying, almost universal hope for the same 
 thing. Men dreamed of a peace almost beyond 
 comprehension, and became so enamored of their 
 dream that they fought one another like wild ani- 
 mals for whatever each believed would hasten 
 realization of the common dream. 
 
 To become literal, Italy was supposed to fur- 
 nish the holiness, and Germany the worldly wis- 
 dom and strength, which were implied by the name 
 of that extraordinary institution for governing the 
 temporal, and directing the spiritual concerns of 
 the world, the Holy Roman Empire, an institution 
 conceived and born under Charles the Great and not 
 dead officially until 1806. Bryce says that "from 
 the days of Constantine till far down into the Mid- 
 dle Ages it was, conjointly with the Papacy, the rec- 
 ognized center and head of Christendom, exercising
 
 8 DANTE 
 
 over the minds of men an influence such as its ma- 
 terial strength could never have commanded. . . . 
 To trace with any minuteness the career of the 
 Empire, would be to write the history of Christen- 
 dom from the fifth century to the twelfth, of Ger- 
 many, and Italy from the twelfth to the nineteenth. 
 . . . Strictly speaking, it is from the year 800 
 A. D., when a king of the Franks was crowned 
 Emperor of the Romans by Pope Leo III, that the 
 beginning of the Holy Roman Empire must be 
 dated." This Frank was Charlemagne. 
 
 Dante lived in the most vital and the most inter- 
 esting period of the Empire's existence, and was 
 beyond question the most important single figure, 
 judged by the test of enduring influence, that the 
 Empire added to the annals of civilization. He 
 was a profound patriot and a devout adherent of the 
 church. He loved Italy for itself and as part of 
 the Empire, and he venerated the church. To Flor- 
 ence, the city of his birth, he was devoted, and he 
 revered the memory of his ancestors, and the for- 
 mer age of simple living and high thinking, of 
 which, in a few words, he drew such a picture as 
 has never been equaled. "Florence was abiding in 
 peace, sober and modest. She had not necklace or 
 coronal, or women with ornamented shoes, or 
 girdle which was more to be looked at than the 
 person. Nor yet did the daughter at her birth 
 give fear to the father, for the time and the dowry
 
 DANTE 9 
 
 did not outrun due measure on this side and that. 
 She had not houses empty of families I saw Bel- 
 lincion Berti go girt with leather and bone, and his 
 lady come from her mirror with unpainted face. 
 And I saw him of the Nerli, and him of Vecchio, 
 satisfied with unlined skin, and their ladies with the 
 spindle and the distaff. O fortunate women! 
 Each one was sure of her burial place." These are 
 the words of Dante's ancestor, Cacciaguida, when 
 Dante meets him in Paradise. 
 
 The other side of the shield, the Florence of 
 Dante's own day, is pictured in the famous apos- 
 trophe of the opening lines of the twenty-sixth 
 canto of the Inferno. 
 
 "Rejoice, O Florence, since thou art so mighty 
 that thou canst spread thy wings o'er sea and land 
 and thy name is known throughout Hell." 
 
 It was an age in which the Emperor and the 
 Pope, pretending to represent the interest of this 
 world, and the other, w r ere at incessant war over 
 material things. It was an age in which such men 
 as Dante believed that this world should be gov- 
 erned by the powers of church and state working 
 together for the good of all ; an age which believed 
 that men should render unto God the things which 
 are God's, and unto Caesar the things which are 
 Caesar's, and that the Pope was God's vicegerent on
 
 10 DANTE 
 
 Earth, and the Emperor, Caesar's. It was an age 
 which witnessed the most fearful disputes between 
 the spiritual and temporal powers; disputes con- 
 nected with every form of falsehood, and black- 
 ened by every kind of crime. The party of the 
 Pope was called Guelf. The Emperor's party was 
 known as Ghibelline. When, for a little, now and 
 then, these parties ceased to quarrel as great terri- 
 torial factions, Italy against Germany, the adher- 
 ents of each of these parties in the individual states, 
 city-republics, would fall to fighting one another. It 
 was constant internal war, civil war, the members 
 of one house at one another's throats, that Dante 
 saw in the place where he prayed and labored for 
 peace, and believed peace would be if the powers 
 who had the ordering of church and state affairs, 
 would but be fair and brave. He was himself a Ghib- 
 elline, and it was after one of the Guelf-Ghibelline 
 quarrels in Florence that he was banished by the 
 leaders of the ascendent Guelf faction. The history 
 of the time is one long record of endless fighting 
 on a grand scale between great states; on a small 
 scale between city and city; of the smaller war of 
 parties within the walls of a single city ; finally, of 
 disputes between individuals. Famine, murder and 
 pestilence walked the streets at noonday, and no- 
 where more than in those wonderful cities of north- 
 ern Italy the history of which is the history of
 
 DANTE 11 
 
 northern Italy Siena, Pistoia, Pisa, to name but 
 few, and before all of them, Florence. 
 
 But it must not be forgotten for a moment that at 
 this very time there was among the citizens of these 
 same towns a love of beauty in its most varied 
 forms, and an inb6rn capacity for preserving the 
 loveliness of what is passing, as well as the awful- 
 ness of it, in the permanent forms of art; such a 
 love and such a capacity as the world has probably 
 never known save when Athens was in her prime. 
 Architecture never carried its head more proudly 
 than when Giotto, and his successors, built the Flor- 
 entine Campanile. Mural decoration has never sur- 
 passed the stage to which this same Giotto, and his 
 contemporaries, brought it. And sculpture, too, in 
 the persons of the Pisani, in earlier works such as the 
 Pisan pulpit, and later, the baptistry gates, and all 
 the arts in sweet combination, for example the tab- 
 ernacle by Orcagna in the Florentine church of Or 
 San Michele, flourished and bore fruits which have 
 the savor of immortality about them. Of the 
 plastic and graphic arts of the age of Dante, and 
 the age immediately following, that can be said with 
 truth which Plutarch said of the monuments on the 
 acropolis in Athens : "As if every one of these fore- 
 said works had some living spirit in it to make it 
 seem young and fresh: and a soul that lived ever, 
 which kept them in their good continuing state." In
 
 12 DANTE 
 
 looking at the Italian arts of the thirteenth and early 
 fourteenth centuries, one wonders who taught their 
 authors how to make themselves eternal, as Dante 
 says Brunetto Latini taught him. 
 
 The works which men make with their hands are 
 of long duration. The acts which they do to one 
 another are of fleeting moment, and soon forgotten, 
 unless the record of them is touched by the magic 
 of art. When this happens, past history is made 
 ever-present, and almost everlasting. The old 
 chronicles and musty records of the troublous times 
 of Dante, interesting as they are to the expert, and 
 the scholar, would be dead to men in general had 
 not Dante touched them with the magic of art : had 
 he not done for Florence and the Holy Roman Em- 
 pire just what Homer did for Troy and the king- 
 doms of Greece; made them living records of the 
 loves and passions of human beings, and so in- 
 sured them an unfailing place in the hearts and 
 heads of living men and women utterly without 
 regard to race or time. This was the secret of the 
 immortality which Brunetto Latini bestowed on 
 Dante. This was the gift which Dante acknowl- 
 edged in a few lines rendered incandescent by an 
 intensity of devotion unsurpassed among all reg- 
 isters of the affection of man for man. Dante says 
 to Brunetto, whom he finds in Hell : "If my prayers 
 were granted you would still be alive, for fixed in 
 my mind and heart is your good, dear, paternal
 
 DANTE 13 
 
 image as on Earth hour by hour you taught me how 
 man makes himself eternal. While I live it be- 
 hooves me to show my gratitude in speech." 
 
 Of the age, of the papal-imperial quarrels, of the 
 internecine wars, Dante has left, among many, one 
 surpassing portrait. Of what the age was on the 
 side of art, the expression of wise and beautiful 
 thinking, in the medium of stone, or paint, or 
 words, the works of the age prove, and none of them 
 more fully than The Divine Comedy. Here is 
 Dante's famous portrait of his own time; one of 
 the most remarkable ever drawn of any time : 
 
 "Ah, servile Italy! hostel of grief! ship without 
 pilot in great tempest ! not lady of provinces but a 
 brothel! in thee thy living men exist not without 
 war and of those whom one wall and one moat shut 
 in, one gnaws the other. Search, wretched one, 
 around its shores, thy seaboard, and then look 
 within thy bosom, if any part in thee enjoys peace. 
 What avails it for thee that Justinian readjusted 
 the bridle, if the saddle be empty? . . . O Ger- 
 man Albert, who has forsaken her that has become 
 untamed and savage, and oughtest to bestride her 
 saddle-bows, may a just judgment from the stars 
 fall upon thy blood, and may it be so strange and 
 manifest, that thy successor may have fear thereat! 
 . . . Come to see thy Rome, that weeps, widowed 
 and alone, and cries day and night: 'My Caesar,
 
 14 DANTE 
 
 wherefore dost thou not keep me company?' Come 
 to see how the people love one another; and if no 
 pity move thee, come to be ashamed for thy own 
 renown! And if it be lawful for me, O Supreme 
 Jove, who wast on Earth crucified for us, are thy 
 just eyes turned aside elsewhere?" 
 
 He begins with a prayer about servitude and tem- 
 pest, and concludes the opening theme of this brief 
 symphony of all the horrors that may befall, with 
 brotheldom. Then follows a passage containing 
 the most terrible, hence the truest, description of 
 civil war ever composed. From this there comes a 
 change to the theme, "there is no peace," and the 
 transcendent wail of the closing passage, there is 
 nobody to see that the laws are carried out, though 
 the laws exist, thanks to the Emperor Justinian who, 
 hundreds of years before, had had those laws codi- 
 fied and arranged so that they could be used. The 
 lamentation dies down a little, and becomes an al- 
 most intimate appeal to the Emperor himself, Albert 
 of Hapsburg, who has not even taken the trouble 
 to go to Rome to receive the papal sanction, and 
 the crown, though he has already two years borne 
 the great title. Then follows a quiet complaint 
 which recites the low state to which are fallen 
 the glorious names of the great families of former 
 times in Italy, weeping "the garden of the empire 
 become desert" and from this rises to a tremen-,
 
 DANTE 15 
 
 dous pitch of misery when Rome in the person of 
 the Pope declares herself widowed because her 
 rightful spouse, the Emperor, has deserted her. 
 Finally the crashing finale, a prayer to Christ. 
 
 There are few passages like it in all literature, and 
 those, in Job or Jeremiah, Revelations, or the ser- 
 mons of Savonarola. The only touch of fear, and 
 pain, and hopeless dread, which is left out of this- 
 apostrophe to Italy and to the Empire in the name of 
 the Emperor, that stinging irony, which can alone 
 whip spiritual flesh with scorpions, is added in the 
 apostrophe to Florence which immediately follows. 
 It begins in pathos "My Florence !" then changes 
 to the bitterest irony ever worded by human tongue 
 "Surely thou mayest be content with this digres- 
 sion, which does not touch thee Now make thee 
 glad, thou that hast such reason ; thou rich, thou at 
 peace, thou wise !" And then the sorrowful closing 
 passage full of tenderness. "And if thou mind thee 
 well and see the light, thou wilt see thyself resenv 
 bling that sick woman, who can not find repose upon 
 the feathers, but with her tossing seeks to relieve 
 her pain." 
 
 VITA NUOVA 
 
 To understand the story of The Divine Comedy 
 it is necessary to know a few facts out of which came 
 the inspiration for Dante's first venture in letters; 
 facts that were the cause of the loveliest story of
 
 16 DANTE 
 
 boy and girl love which the world possesses. When 
 Dante was nine years old he fell in love with a girl 
 of eight. Her name was Beatrice. From that time 
 on, to her death in 1290, life for Dante seemed a 
 regeneration. The relations between these two 
 lovers were never other than distant, consisting, at 
 most, of glances and a few salutations. The boy, 
 bashful and diffident, sought only clandestine 
 glimpses of his beloved. Away from her he wrote 
 verses in the praise of her, and of love, and of all 
 heavenly qualities and things to which her coming 
 into his life had introduced him. These verses, with 
 short intermingled passages of prose, he put to- 
 gether and named Vita Nuova, "The New Life." 
 In 1289 Dante wrote the twenty-sixth chapter of 
 this book about his Beatrice and love. No part is 
 more exquisite in itself, or more typical of a whole 
 which should never be read but as a whole, than the 
 page of prose and the sonnet which together form 
 Chapter XXVI. The following translation is by 
 Charles Eliot Norton: 
 
 "I say that she showed herself so gentle and so 
 full of all pleasantness, that those who looked on her 
 comprehended in themselves a pure and sweet de- 
 light, such as they could not after tell in words; 
 nor was there any who might look upon her but that 
 at first he needs must sigh. These and more admira- 
 ble things proceeded from her admirably, and with
 
 DANTE 17 
 
 power. Wherefore I, thinking upon this, desiring 
 to resume the style of her praise, resolved to say 
 words in which I would set forth her admirable and 
 excellent influences, to the end that not only those 
 who might actually behold her, but also others, 
 should know of her whatever words could tell. Then 
 I devised this sonnet : 
 
 "So gentle and so gracious doth appear 
 My lady when she giveth her salute, 
 That every tongue becometh, trembling, mute ; 
 Nor do the eyes to look upon her dare. 
 
 "Although she hears her praises, she doth go 
 
 Benignly vested with humility; 
 And like a thing come down, she seems to be, 
 From heaven to earth, a miracle to show. 
 
 "So pleaseth she whoever cometh nigh, 
 
 She gives the heart a sweetness through the eyes, 
 
 Which none can understand who doth not prove. 
 
 And from her countenance there seems to move 
 A spirit sweet and in Love's very guise, 
 
 Who to the soul, in going, sayeth : Sigh 1" 
 
 Three chapters further on, the tone of rapt and 
 innocent joy in life and love changes, and the fear- 
 ful and unanswerable question of death is raised. 
 In Dante's own words, "the Lord of Justice called 
 this most gentle one to glory." Beatrice died, as has 
 been said, in 1290. The twenty-ninth chapter of 
 The New Life announces her death. Its caption is 
 from Lamentations. "How doth the city sit 
 solitary, that was full of people! How is she be- 
 come as a widow! she that was great among the
 
 18 DANTE 
 
 nations." Like Judah, Dante had "gone into cap- 
 tivity because of affliction;" like her he finds him- 
 self "in bitterness." After this he continues his 
 New Life with brief passages of the prose of simple 
 affliction, and the verse of simple grief. Like Judah 
 he finds "no rest." With the forty-third chapter of 
 the little book its author breaks off so abruptly as 
 to make it seem almost petulant. He is as a matter 
 of fact full of petulancy at his own inability to 
 express his feelings for his lost love. In this final 
 chapter, in length but a short paragraph, he reg- 
 isters a vow, and sets up an ideal. These are the 
 connecting links in the chain of cause and effect 
 that finally brought The Divine Comedy into exist- 
 ence. To The Divine Comedy, The New Life is the 
 poet's own introduction. 
 
 This introduction, The New Life, is simple in the 
 sense that a child's life, happy or unhappy, is sim- 
 ple. The Divine Comedy is complex, vastly so, in 
 the sense that an active-minded, active-handed man's 
 life is complex. Yet The Comedy too is simple ; sim- 
 ple in the sense in which all great works of art are 
 simple, *. e., single, sincere, direct endowed with 
 singleness of aim. As in nature, so in Dante's art, 
 whether the subject is simple or complex, it is never 
 confused. The solar system is not confused though 
 it is complex, and vast, beyond human comprehen- 
 sion. The bloom of chickweed is not simple for 
 the reason that it is small. And so with these
 
 DANTE 19 
 
 works of Dante, though one is simple, even slight, 
 and the other is complex, and of an intellectual and 
 poetic inclusiveness far beyond any save a bare 
 handful of the most glorious works, neither is con- 
 fused. Complexity and simplicity are relative terms 
 when properly applied to the works of nature, or 
 the works of art. Confused is an absolute term when 
 properly used in regard to art, and is truly descrip- 
 tive of works of inferior art only. To the works of 
 nature it is not applicable at all. It is ignorance 
 alone that confounds the complex with the confused, 
 whether in art or in nature, that on which art must 
 be forever based, and to which art must be forever 
 true. What art, matters not the least. 
 
 We must read, mark, and inwardly digest, the 
 last simple chapter of The New Life. We must re- 
 member the vow, and grasp the ideal, therein regis- 
 tered and set up, if we wish to derive true pleasure, 
 through true understanding, from the poem to which 
 it is the introduction. The translation of this chap- 
 ter again is Norton's : 
 
 "After this sonnet, a wonderful vision appeared 
 to me, in which I saw things which made me re- 
 solve to speak no more of this blessed one, until I 
 could more worthily treat of her. And to attain 
 this, I study to the utmost of my power, as she truly 
 knows. So that, if it shall please Him through whom 
 all things live, that my life be prolonged for some
 
 20 DANTE 
 
 years, I hope to say of her what was never said of 
 any woman. 
 
 "And then may it please Him who is the Lord 
 of Grace, that my soul may go to behold the glory 
 of its lady, namely, of that blessed Beatrice, who 
 in glory looks upon the face of Him qui est per 
 omnia saecula benedictus (who is blessed forever)." 
 
 Dante's ideal was to learn to write in such a way 
 as would enable him to express his thought about 
 Beatrice with satisfaction to himself, hence, to 
 others, the entirety of its fervor and depth. His 
 vow was to say no more of Beatrice until he could 
 say of her, "what was never said of any woman." 
 He did both these things, and to this day he stands 
 in the foremost rank of the few men of all time who 
 have succeeded in doing either of these things; 
 alone, and above all men in having done both of 
 these things. 
 
 THE POEM AND ITS STYLE 
 
 The Divine Comedy is a great poem and a great 
 play in one, not meant as a play to be acted in the 
 ordinary sense, but as a poem, meant in reading, to 
 present its characters to the mind of the reader, as 
 the characters of a play present themselves in acting 
 to the audience. In order that the effect of a play 
 may be produced on the reader's mind, Dante in- 
 corporates full stage directions, and the most com-
 
 DANTE 21 
 
 plete account of the stage setting, in the body of the 
 work itself. Furthermore, without a suggestion of 
 meaning to do so, he keeps the reader always aware 
 of the time of every scene and act. 
 
 His play, The Divine Comedy, is divided into 
 three acts and one hundred scenes; three books, to 
 speak of it as a poem, and one hundred cantos. 
 
 Its most remarkable characteristic is what may be 
 called convincingness. Lowell said, "We read The 
 Comedy as a record of fact." In the sense of pre- 
 senting convincing facts, The Comedy is beyond all 
 other literary works convincing ; convincing as Para- 
 dise Lost is not. "We read Paradise Lost as a poem, 
 the Commedia as a record of fact, and no one," con- 
 tinues Lowell, "can read Dante without believing 
 his story, for it is plain that he believed it himself. 
 It is false aesthetics to confound the grandiose with 
 the imaginative." It is by the word imaginative that 
 Lowell describes the spiritual raison d'etre for the 
 unique quality of The Divine Comedy. Emerson, 
 who understood this as clearly as Lowell, pointed 
 out with equal clearness what may be called its 
 unique physical raison d'etre when he added to the 
 statement that Darite is "all wings, pure imagina- 
 tion," this other statement, "he wrote like Euclid." 
 
 "Imagination bodies forth the forms of things un- 
 known . . . and gives to airy nothing a local 
 habitation and a name." It is precisely this that the 
 author of Midsummer Night's Dream did, thereby
 
 22 DANTE 
 
 making the unreal, real ; the impossible, in the sense 
 of what never was, appear possible, and convincing; 
 just this that saved Shakespeare, as it saved Dante, 
 from ever becoming grandiose; just this that must 
 forever link their names together; just this that led 
 Carlyle to call them "a peculiar two." 
 
 To write like Euclid is the same as giving to the 
 figures and the places of imagination, "a local habita- 
 tion and a name." It is the ultimate secret of all 
 great art. By it comes the last touch of worth which 
 human genius can bestow on works of art that 
 simplicity which proves that the artist had creative 
 imagination together with complete mastery of ex- 
 pression simplicity, which in this sense is the 
 synonym for, and the witness of, style. Style is the 
 quality of a work of art that makes visible, audible, 
 in a word, understandable, the quality of an artist's 
 very soul. Wagner in his autobiography makes the 
 meaning of style clear when he tells of sending a 
 copy of his Nibelungen poem to Schopenhauer, for 
 whom he had tremendous admiration, but with 
 whom he had no personal acquaintance. He says : 
 "To its title I merely added the words 'with rev- 
 erence/ but without writing a single word to Schop- 
 enhauer himself. This I did partly from a feeling 
 of great shyness in addressing him, and partly be- 
 cause I felt that if the perusal of my poem did not 
 enlighten Schopenhauer about the man with whom 
 he was dealing, a letter from me no matter how.
 
 DANTE 23 
 
 explicit would not help him much." Here is the 
 very essence of the meaning of style! That quality 
 in a work of art which declares its author, as Mil- 
 ton thought the universe declared its Creator. 
 
 THE STORY OF THE DIVINE COMEDY 
 
 Condensed to the briefest terms the story of The 
 Divine Comedy is this. When Beatrice had been 
 ten years dead, i. e,, 1300 A. D., Dante represents 
 himself as making his famous journey. "Midway 
 in the course of my life," at thirty-five years of age, 
 going on the assumption that the psalmist was right 
 in setting the years of man at three score and ten, 
 when half his days were spent, Dante found him- 
 self gone astray, even lost. We need not discuss 
 the meaning of astray and lost as Dante applies 
 these words to himself. He may have meant mor- 
 ally, in the sense of "gone to the dogs," or he may 
 have meant spiritually, in the sense of "following 
 after false gods." He may have meant, and prob- 
 ably did, both. It is not necessary to pry into the 
 particulars of his having gone astray and finding 
 himself, as he says, "in a dark wood, where the 
 right way was lost." That he was speaking both 
 literally and figuratively may be fairly assumed. 
 The all-important point is that he had lost his moor- 
 ings on the sea of life, and was being driven before 
 the gusts of passion which shipwreck so many men ; 
 that he was himself in imminent peril of shipwreck.
 
 24 DANTE 
 
 At this point, Beatrice, who has carried her love 
 for Dante into Paradise, sees his straits and sets 
 about to succor him; to set him right once more, 
 and so bring about his ultimate salvation. Here 
 is the whole story, the love of Beatrice in Heaven, 
 for her mortal lover, left behind, and fallen on 
 evil days, working out his regeneration. To do 
 this Beatrice gets permission to descend into that 
 part of Hell where Virgil is. This is a place where 
 the only form of suffering inflicted upon the upright 
 and virtuous heathen is that of being cut off from 
 beholding God for the reason that they had not wor- 
 shiped Him, and this, because they had lived and 
 died before He revealed Himself to the world, 
 hence through no fault of theirs. When she arrives 
 in this "easiest room in Hell," to use the applicable 
 words of Michael Wigglesworth, she singles out 
 Virgil and asks him to play the part of guide to her 
 friend, Dante, and show him the horror which en- 
 compasses the damned; the sufferings which those 
 who repent in time must undergo in order to wash 
 themselves of sin and be finally fit for Heaven. The 
 joys of Paradise she herself will later show Dante. 
 .Virgil was chosen because he was regarded as the 
 supreme example of human wisdom, and the su- 
 preme master of verbal expression; becaus'e he was 
 a poet, a transcendent poet, one possessed of the 
 "breath and finer spirit of all knowledge." 
 Virgil, in the second canto of Hell, having agreed
 
 DANTE 25 
 
 to guide Dante, tells him the story of Beatrice com- 
 ing to him. He says, "A blessed and beautiful lady 
 called me in such fashion that I besought her to com- 
 mand. Her eyes were brighter than the stars, and 
 she began to say in low, sweet tones, an angel's 
 voice: 'O courteous Mantuan spirit! whose fame 
 yet lasts on Earth, and shall till the end of time, a 
 friend of mine, but not of fortune, is so hindered 
 (has the world so much with him) , that I fear I may 
 be already too late with help. Now do thou move, 
 and with thy skilful speech, and with whatever is 
 needed for his deliverance, aid him, so that I may 
 be consoled. I am Beatrice who make thee go. I 
 came from a place whither I desire to return.' Love 
 moved me. It makes me speak." 
 
 Virgil tells Beatrice that he will do as she asks. 
 Thereupon he goes forth from the place where he 
 is, and finds Dante, who has lost his way in the 
 dark wood, the story of which forms the very be- 
 ginning of the first canto of The Divine Comedy. 
 Virgil offers to lead Dante through the underworld, 
 and up the steeps of Purgatory as far as it will be 
 permitted him to go, i. e., to the confines of the 
 Earthly Paradise, which is on the mountain of Pur- 
 gatory, and that place where all is, as it was before 
 the Fall. Into this place Virgil can not enter. On 
 the threshold of it he leaves Dante to await the com- 
 ing of Beatrice, who is to guide him through the 
 Earthly and the Heavenly Paradise. The parting of
 
 26 DANTE 
 
 Virgil and Dante takes place at the close of the 
 twenty-seventh canto of Purgatory. The scene is 
 one of incomparable loveliness and simplicity. Vir- 
 gil says, "The temporal fire and the eternal" mean- 
 ing the sufferings and punishment of Purgatory, 
 which have their allotted term, and those other suf- 
 ferings and punishments of Hell, which are without 
 end "thou hast seen, son, and now thou art come 
 to a place where of myself I discern no farther." 
 Virgil means that he himself has sufficient powers 
 of intellect to guide Dante along the crooked ways 
 and through the hard places of Hell and Purgatory, 
 but that he lacks the light of divine grace which 
 alone can enable any one to tread the paths of Para- 
 dise. He tells Dante that he has brought him so 
 far with the help of his own understanding and art, 
 in a word, intellectual power. "Forth art thou," 
 says Virgil, "from the steep ways, forth art thou 
 from the narrow. Expect no more or word or sign 
 from me. Free, upright, and sound is thine own 
 will, and it would be wrong not to act according to 
 its dictate : wherefore thee over thyself I crown and 
 mitre." 
 
 The point is this. Dante, a man still in the flesh, 
 sinful and unrepentant, hence certain of Hell, should 
 he die, is, through the special favor of Heaven 
 granted to his once earthly but now heavenly lover, 
 permitted to make a pilgrimage through Hell and
 
 DANTE 27 
 
 Purgatory. This journey, which is his warning, 
 proves to be his salvation, because he takes heed. 
 The events and sights of this journey he records for 
 the warning and salvation of all men throughout 
 time, who may be living in sin, unrepentant, as he 
 was. The record is The Divine Comedy. It shows 
 what happens to the damned in Hell; them whose 
 case is hopeless. It shows what happens to penitents 
 in Purgatory; them w r hose case has hope in it, 
 though their actual condition in Purgatory is not 
 less fearful than that of souls in Hell. The essen- 
 tial difference between the two lies in the temporal 
 character of one, and the eternal character of the 
 other. 
 
 Finally, The Divine Comedy describes the state of 
 the blessed in Paradise. This is the third part of 
 the record. The journey Dante made through the 
 Earthly and the Heavenly Paradise, with Beatrice as 
 guide, is described. To be fit to undertake this last 
 stage he had to represent himself as purged of all 
 sin, and that is the meaning of Virgil's parting 
 words, "thee over thyself I crown and mitre." In 
 effect, Virgil says to Dante, "You have but to go 
 your own way now to go right ; you can not choose 
 but follow the guide who will soon come to you. 
 You can not desire to go elsewhere than she leads 
 you." This guide is, as we know, Beatrice. The 
 realm through which she leads her lover is Paradise.
 
 28 DANTE 
 
 THE STAGE 
 
 The universe as conceived of by thirteenth cen- 
 tury Christianity was not complex, because it was 
 regarded as consisting of certain definite parts, put 
 together in a certain fashion, and recognized as 
 having fixed limits. Its cosmography was clearly 
 outlined in the minds of educated men of that day. 
 Let us not forget for a moment that Dante was pre- 
 eminently such a man; one who had mastered the 
 sum of human knowledge, the "omne scibile" as it 
 was then called. The reason why the medieval idea 
 of the universe often seems so complex is because of 
 the numerous, almost endless subdivisions which 
 men were constantly imposing upon what to start 
 with was a really simple and logical scheme. The 
 complexity, and resulting indefiniteness of the 
 medieval conception, was due to endless dividing 
 of a known quantity, a universe accepted as a known 
 fact. The complexity and indefiniteness of our 
 modern conception of the universe is due to the re- 
 moval of all ideas of limitation; to the prevalent no- 
 tions of worlds without number. This accounts for 
 the vague character of Milton's cosmography. He 
 had the modern point of view in this regard, as 
 compared with the concise and exact character of 
 Dante's ideas. For Dante, when he came to write 
 The Divine Comedy, the universe was a ready pre- 
 pared stage, known to many men, and hence sure
 
 DANTE 29. 
 
 to be intelligible to many of his readers. Heaven, 
 Hell and Purgatory, had as clearly marked positions 
 in the thirteenth-century universe as Europe, Asia 
 and Africa have on a terrestrial globe of the pres- 
 ent day. 
 
 The universe which forms the stage for The Di- 
 vine Comedy consisted of four great provinces, so 
 to speak: Earth, the province of living men; Hell, 
 the province of the dead who are eternally damned; 
 Purgatory, the province of the dead who, because 
 they repented while still alive, expiate their sins 
 with the knowledge that when the slate is clean they 
 shall enter Heaven; Paradise, the province of the 
 elect; those who, soon or late in reaching Heaven, 
 are, from the instant of their arrival there, fixed in 
 an abode of everlasting blessedness. The Divine 
 Comedy is acted, so to speak, in the three last of 
 these provinces Hell, Purgatory, Paradise. In other 
 words, the stage is set in three different places, but 
 each of these places was as clearly defined in the 
 minds of Dante's contemporaries as the banqueting 
 hall of Cardinal Wolsey's palace at Hampton Court 
 is a fixed place in the mind of a present-day Ameri- 
 can who knows Shakespeare's Henry VIII, be he 
 reader, or theater-goer, or both. To read The Di- 
 vine Comedy intelligently, it is necessary to have a 
 clear conception of the stage, which means knowing 
 where one is at any given time. To get such a con- 
 ception is by no means as difficult as many suppose.
 
 30 DANTE 
 
 The Earth, thought of as a globe, was the accepted 
 center of the universe. The northern hemisphere 
 was land; the southern, water. Jerusalem was sit- 
 uated at what we think of as the North Pole, just 
 half-way between the River Ganges, to the east, and 
 the Straits of Gibraltar, to the west. Hell was within 
 the Earth ; Purgatory outside ; Paradise above. This 
 needs explanation. 
 
 Hell was a vast funnel-shaped hole, the nozzle 
 of which was at the center of the Earth, and the top, 
 a great circular opening, the center of which was 
 just under Jerusalem, at the North Pole. Lucifer 
 had his seat at the center of gravity, where he 
 stopped falling, i. e., at the center of the Earth, or 
 apex of Hell. The reason for this, as well as the 
 shape and location of Hell, was perfectly plain to 
 Dante. It was this. At the time when the hostile 
 angels rebelled against God, their leader, Lucifer, 
 was thrown out of Heaven and fell to Earth. The 
 Earth drew back in horror, and the hole so produced 
 made Hell, as it has already been described. At the 
 same time the water of the northern hemisphere 
 all ran to the south. Thus the northern hemisphere 
 came to be land, and the southern, water. 
 
 Purgatory was a high cone-shaped mountain to 
 be thought of, as we should say, at the South Pole. 
 The top of this mountain was occupied by the 
 Earthly Paradise, or Eden. It appears to have been
 
 DANTE 31 
 
 a matter of arbitrary choice on Dante's part in 
 placing the Earthly Paradise, or Eden, at the top of 
 the mountain of Purgatory. Hitherto it had been 
 located in Asia. As a matter of the logical structure 
 of his stage, this crowning Purgatory with Eden, 
 is a stroke of genius quite in keeping with the genius 
 of Dante which makes itself apparent at so many 
 points throughout the structure of his colossal work. 
 The reason why Purgatory was at the South Pole, 
 and was cone-shaped, could be clearly explained by 
 Dante and his age. When the Earth drew back be- 
 fore the falling Lucifer, and the void of Hell was 
 formed, some arrangement had to be made for the 
 dislodged material. This material, as it were, flowed 
 out through the nozzle of the funnel of Hell, the 
 nozzle being thought of as a pipe-like continuation of 
 the apex of Hell, straight through to the opposite 
 side, the South Pole. At this point, the South Pole, 
 the material dislodged during the formation of the 
 funnel, i. e., Hell, within the body of the Earth, was 
 piled without, or upon the body of the Earth, in a 
 cone-shaped mountain. This mountain, which was 
 Purgatory, had the same form as Hell, but reversed, 
 the apex of the former being up, whereas that of 
 the latter was down. This mountain stood in the 
 midst of the waters of the southern hemisphere. As 
 Dante, for his purposes, changed the orthodox lo- 
 cation of the Earthly Paradise from Asia to the top
 
 32 DANTE 
 
 of the sea-girt mountain, so he also changed the 
 orthodox location of Purgatory, which was under- 
 ground, or inside the Earth, to a place outside. 
 
 We now come to the third part of Dante's great 
 universal stage, the Heavens and all therein. First, 
 Dante thought of the world, as we speak of it to- 
 day, in its four primal elements of earth, water, air 
 and fire. The globe consisted of earth and water 
 as they appear to the sense of sight. This was en- 
 cased in two hollow hemispheres, the inner, that 
 next the Earth, being air ; the outer, that beyond the 
 air, fire. If we now keep in mind this globe of 
 earth and water, air and fire, as a distinct unit, a 
 sphere unit, fixed and motionless, we shall have 
 the essential fact, or information, around which to 
 construct a clear idea of Dante's universe. 
 
 Surrounding this spheral unit, the Earth, there are 
 nine concentric hollow hemispheres. These are the 
 Heavens. Each bears the name of the particular 
 heavenly body which occupies it. All whirl around 
 the Earth as a center. The sphere nearest the Earth 
 moves slowest In order, as these spheres are re- 
 moved from the Earth, in other words, as they are 
 nearer the throne of God which is at the heart of 
 Paradise, the faster they whirl. In order outward, 
 from the Earth, come the Heavens of the Moon, 
 Mercury, Venus, the Sun, of Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, 
 and finally of the Fixed Stars. Outside of the 
 Heaven of the Fixed Stars is the Primum Mobile,
 
 DANTE 33 
 
 or the First Moving Heaven. Beyond this ninth 
 Heaven, the ninth of these hollow, concentric, whirl- 
 ing hemispheres, was Space, the Empyrean, where 
 time was not, nor matter, nor motion, but where 
 from the beginning God was, and where with Him 
 forever dwell His angels and His elect. 
 
 Having reached the Empyrean we are close upon 
 the nine so-called circles of Paradise, nine concentric 
 circles, or as they are usually called, the Heavenly 
 Hierarchy, which forever swing about the point at 
 which God is throned from everlasting to everlast- 
 ing. The circle nearest God moves fastest. The 
 circle farthest away moves slowest. Their motion 
 is caused by the joy and complete satisfaction which 
 comes of being placed by Him, each at due distance 
 from Him. Desire to be at one with God, and the 
 perfect accord with His will in establishing degrees 
 of distance for each circle, lead the creatures in- 
 habiting these circles, really the circles themselves, 
 to move ceaselessly around Him. This was the 
 medieval way of accounting for the origin and con- 
 tinuance of the motion of the circles or Heavenly 
 Hierarchy. Beginning with the Seraphs, who were 
 nearest to God, the nine orders of creatures which 
 composed this Hierarchy were, in degree of their 
 distance from the center, and in direction outward, 
 beginning with the Seraphs who were nearest to 
 God Cherubs, Thrones, Dominions, Virtues, 
 Powers, Princes, Archangels and Angels. The
 
 34 DANTE 
 
 general name for these creatures was Intelligences, 
 and through them the influence of God was con- 
 veyed to the Heavens. Through this occult influence, 
 and by the unseen agency of the Intelligences, the 
 Heavens were set whirling about the Earth. The 
 Heavens, in turn, through occult influence and hid- 
 den power, affected the Earth itself, and brought 
 about all changes such as the birth, growth and 
 death of animals and plants, and exerted control 
 over the lives and dispositions of men. 
 
 A homely and simple experiment in construction 
 will make Dante's stage, the universe, as he con- 
 ceived of it, clear to any one who finds the foregoing 
 description puzzling. All that is necessary in mak- 
 ing the experiment or demonstration is an apple, a 
 bit of cardboard and a string. We will begin with 
 the Heavenly Hierarchy. Cut the cardboard to a 
 round and put the string through the center, knot- 
 ting it so that the cardboard will remain in place. 
 Draw nine concentric circles about the point where 
 the string pierces the round card. The point of 
 piercing will represent the place where God is, and 
 the nine rings on the card the nine Intelligences, 
 from inner Seraphs to outer Angels. 
 
 Next we will make Hell and Purgatory in their 
 proper relations to Paradise. First, Hell. Pierce 
 the apple with the string (a needle will help), taking 
 the string in where the stem was, and out where the 
 flower was. These two points will represent the
 
 DANTE 35 
 
 Nortli and South Poles, respectively, on the apple, 
 which represents the Earth. With a sharp pen-knife 
 cut out as nearly as can be a cone-shaped piece of ap- 
 ple the base of this cone being a circle around the 
 place where the string enters the apple, and the 
 apex of the cone at the center of the apple. Remove 
 this and the cavity which it leaves will represent 
 Hell, the apex of which is at the center of the 
 Earth the center of the apple. 
 
 Now take the cut-out cone of apple and put 
 the string in at the middle of its base, and bring it 
 out as near as possible to the point. Then slide the 
 cone up the string until the base is close to the apple. 
 Knot the string for sake of security. This cone, 
 the exact counterpart of Hell, only reversed, will 
 represent the mountain of Purgatory, at the top, or 
 point of which, was Dante's Earthly Paradise. 
 
 Imagination must help complete the experiment. 
 The nine Heavens we may picture as nine concentric, 
 transparent spheres enclosing the apple, or Earth. 
 These whirl individually around the Earth and in 
 each is set sun, moon, or planet as already de- 
 scribed. 
 
 Looking at our model we should now fix in mind 
 a few further points. A line drawn about the apple 
 half-way between the poles and at right angles to 
 the string will represent the Equator. The northern 
 hemisphere is to be thought of as land the opening 
 to Hell as crusted over and forming a part of the
 
 36 DANTE 
 
 Earth's surface. On this crust, Jerusalem. The 
 southern hemisphere is water out of the midst of 
 which rises Purgatory, whose summit, the Earthly 
 Paradise, pierces the Heavens and is above the reach 
 of atmospheric disturbance of any kind; hence the 
 unchanging perfection of its climate. In its main 
 masses, and in their distribution, as has been de- 
 scribed, this was Dante's idea of the universe the 
 stage of his great drama La Divina Commedia. 
 
 THE ACTORS 1 
 
 No question is more natural than that asked by 
 a reader when he first takes up The Divine Comedy : 
 "What are these people, these ghosts of men and 
 women, these creatures that talk like human be- 
 ings but are not flesh, or subject to gravity, or any 
 other of the laws which condition matter, what are 
 they; what did Dante think they were, they whom 
 he met, and talked with, in the trifold realm of the 
 other world; they whose talk he reports in The 
 Comedy?" It is easy to say that they were dis- 
 embodied spirits, ghosts, or the like, but this answer 
 will be a bit too vague to satisfy an insistent and 
 really intelligent questioner. At least, if we say 
 disembodied spirits, ghosts, we are in duty bound 
 to make our own ideas about them plain ; as far as 
 possible, Dante's idea about them. It is, as Vol- 
 taire said, necessary to define terms. Defining the 
 ghosts, or ghostly personages who inhabited Dante's 
 
 ""^See Purgatory, XXV: page 218.
 
 DANTE 37 
 
 other world, may be done by calling him or her, as 
 the case may be, the spiritual essence,' or forma of 
 that same him or her when in the flesh, and upon 
 Earth. The word forma meant, as used in Dante's 
 time, the intangible but shaping principle which 
 gives men and women the guise by which they are 
 known in life. An analogy may help us at this 
 point. If we turn on the gas, but do not ignite it, 
 we see nothing. If we touch a match to the gas 
 we see a flame of given shape. The unlighted body 
 of gas, invisible and intangible, when ignited be- 
 comes a visible and recognizable object of fixed di- 
 mensions, a flame. We know that the body of gas 
 is the shaping principle of the flame. Just so with 
 man. The forma, a ghost, comes into the field of 
 mortal vision, and is made evident, when, for a 
 time, it is "clothed on" or clad with flesh. At death 
 this flesh drops away, but the forma, the forma- 
 tive principle so to speak, though returned to the 
 realm of the unseen and the intangible, remains, and 
 the man becomes a ghost. These ghosts are the den- 
 izens of the other world; of Hell, Purgatory and 
 Paradise, and are always to be met there though not 
 here at least not commonly, according to the pre- 
 vailing notions of the twentieth century. The fun- 
 damental conception of Dante's ghosts or spiritual 
 inhabitants of the other world is based upon, and 
 most intimately related to, the Christian scheme of 
 immortality. Dante's idea of the forma, the ghost,
 
 38 DANTE 
 
 i. e., the essential and indestructible part of a man, is 
 set forth nowhere more plainly than in the eighth 
 chapter and the third book of Carlyle's Sartor Rc- 
 sartus, the last paragraphs of which chapter can 
 not be read with too much care by any one, who, on 
 taking up The Divine Comedy, asks himself the 
 question, "What manner of folk were they whom 
 Dante met, saw and conversed with on his journey 
 through the other world?" 
 
 "Nature, which is the Time-vesture of God, and 
 reveals Him to the wise, hides Him from the fool- 
 ish. ... I say, sweep away the illusion of 
 Time; compress the three score years into three 
 minutes; . . . Are we not spirits, that are 
 shaped into a body, into an Appearance; and that 
 fade away again into air and Invisibility? This 
 is no metaphor, it is a simple scientific fact; we 
 start out of Nothingness, take figure, and are Ap- 
 paritions; round us, as round the veriest Spectre, 
 is Eternity; and to Eternity minutes are as years 
 and aeons. 
 
 "O Heaven, it is mysterious, it is awful to con- 
 sider that we not only carry each a future Ghost 
 within Him; but are in very deed, Ghosts! These 
 Limbs, whence had we them ; this stormy Force ; this 
 life-blood with its burning Passion? They are dust 
 and shadow; a Shadow-system gathered round our 
 Me ; wherein, through some moments or years, the 
 Divine Essence is to be revealed in the Flesh.
 
 DANTE 39 
 
 "Generation after generation takes to itself the 
 Form of a Body; and forth-issuing from Cim- 
 merian Night, on Heaven's mission appears . . . 
 and then the Heaven-sent is recalled; his earthly 
 Vesture falls away, and soon even to sense becomes 
 a vanished Shadow." 
 
 It is this Shadow which was before our birth, 
 which is the reality of our mundane existence, 
 which shall be our ghost after we have left the 
 world, eternal in Hell or Heaven, this Shadow of 
 Carlyle's, Carlyle's Ghost within us it was this, and 
 countless millions of them, whom Dante saw on his 
 journey through the regions of the dead. 
 
 TIME IN THE DIVINE COMEDY 
 
 Throughout the poem Dante is most precise as 
 to the day, and hour of the day, on which, and at 
 which, events recorded, took place. As with the 
 detail of places, and minute particulars concerning 
 scenes and persons represented, so with time, the 
 poet is most punctilious about rendering every line 
 in such a way as to produce a sense of reality in 
 the reader's mind; that sense of literary reality 
 which only the very greatest men ever succeed in 
 producing. He would never have his reader lose 
 faith for the length of a single line in the awful 
 and beautiful reality of the regions beyond death 
 where all men are meeting, or shall meet, their just 
 deserts. In his own mind there. was no vagueness
 
 40 , DANTE 
 
 as to when an event occurred, nor where, nor how. 
 In his manner of presentation there is no vagueness 
 or dimness of touch about anything or anybody re- 
 ferred to. The result is a corresponding lack of 
 vagueness in his reader's mind. 
 
 The poem opens on Good Friday in the year 
 1300, and it was on the evening of the same 
 Good Friday that Dante, with Virgil, entered 
 Hell. They issued forth from Hell a little before 
 sunrise on the following Sunday, Easter morning. 
 At noon on the following Wednesday, Dante, 
 with Beatrice, entered Paradise. Thus in the 
 darkness of approaching night he went down to 
 Hell. At the hopeful hour of dawn he came to 
 Purgatory. With the meridian splendor of high 
 noon he passed up into Paradise. In the choice of 
 all three of these times the poetic intention is, of 
 course, obvious. Lesser divisions of time, and pre- 
 cise reference to hours are marked throughout the 
 poem by repeated mention of the position of the 
 sun and stars. 
 
 FREEDOM OF THE WILL THE CORNER-STONE 
 OF DANTE'S BELIEF 
 
 Dante attributed all things in Heaven and Earth 
 to Love. With him, as with St. Paul, it was the 
 uttermost force, the force by which all that is, can 
 be transfigured. Because of the love that was in 
 Him ; because He "is love," did God create all that
 
 DANTE 41 
 
 He created. The idea is that He wanted to share 
 His own supreme good with others, inanimate things 
 and animals ; living beings, men and angels. As He 
 created all these He made them all alike, i. e., each, 
 in its own kind, perfect. There was no possibility 
 for wrong because there was no choice on the part 
 of any thing or creature. This was the state of 
 man in Eden, the Earthly Paradise. Nothing 
 mankind, animal, thing under this condition had 
 individuality, because individuality implies action 
 which is the result of the power to make a choice. 
 This right to choose, what is called freedom of the 
 will, God then bestowed on men and angels, only 
 two ranks of His creatures. Beatrice in Paradise 
 says to Dante, "The greatest gift which God in His 
 bounty bestowed in creating . . . and that which 
 He prizes most, was the freedom of the will, with 
 which the creatures that have intelligence (men 
 and angels) they all and they alone, were and are 
 endowed." 
 
 Thus, endowed with the right to choose, and with 
 love, men and angels become capable of sin which 
 is nothing more than the desire or love for what 
 is not good, i. e., not in accord with the will of 
 God. So, when God made men and angels free to 
 sin, they responded, Adam and Lucifer, and for 
 their sins suffered expulsion from Eden, and ex- 
 pulsion from Paradise, because, with the gift of free 
 will, God stipulated for an absolute personal liabil-
 
 42 DANTE 
 
 ity for the choice made. You shall act as you like, 
 and, if you do wrong, you shall suffer. If you re- 
 pent of your sins in time, literally in time, i. e., be- 
 fore you die, before you quit time for eternity, you 
 shall be allowed to work out a due punishment in 
 Purgatory, and when this is done, you shall go to 
 the realms of the blest, Paradise. If, however, you 
 do not repent before death, i. e., in time, you shall 
 go to Hell forever. This, in brief, is the system on 
 which Dante represents God as dealing with man- 
 kind, a system implying perfect freedom to act with 
 unswerving consequences following on every act, 
 the least as well as the greatest. 
 
 TWO WAYS OF READING THE DIVINE COMEDY 
 
 In The Divine Comedy Dante relates an imagina- 
 tive experience, but he couches that experience in 
 the terms of every-day reality. There are two ways 
 in which this experience may be read. One, as an 
 exceedingly interesting narrative of men and women 
 in strange regions, suffering under, or delighting 
 in, the just rewards of their various sins and vir- 
 tues, and the varying degrees of each. Dante visits 
 these men and women and talks with them, gather- 
 ing information about their different states, and the 
 places they are in. This material he uses as the sub- 
 stance of the narrative of his poem. Now these 
 people are the dead, and the places in which he visits
 
 DANTE 43 
 
 them are Hell, Purgatory and Paradise. Their 
 conditioning is that of just reward. In a word, 
 Dante describes his journey to the other world as 
 made by him, while still in the flesh. The other 
 world is that eternal dwelling place where unfleshed 
 humanity has what is usually called its "future 
 life." Although the experiences of his journey, like 
 the journey itself, are all figments of his mind, he 
 makes each one of them seem true and real because 
 he believed in them, and possessed the power to 
 clothe his belief in that seeming reality which is 
 the rare and precious gift of great art. A child can 
 read the story of this journey and never suspect that 
 the characters are other than live men and women 
 moving about in real places. This is the way that 
 one should first read The Divine Comedy read it 
 for the story, and get acquainted with the charac- 
 ters. The second way of reading it should not be 
 attempted until one has made himself moderately 
 conversant with the simple, straightforward narra- 
 tive, and the places visited. Every one of these is a 
 marvel of description. This way of reading implies 
 the discovery of the inner and the true purpose of 
 the poem; its significance as an exposition of the 
 moral laws governing human life. 
 
 Thus and so, on purpose, and for attaining de- 
 sired ends, do men act. Record of this action forms 
 the narrative. As this action is good or bad, and in 
 just such degrees as it is good or bad, does an ab-
 
 44 DANTE 
 
 solutely just God mete out punishment or reward. 
 The moral significance of the poem is cast in the 
 form of an absolutely consistent allegory, hence a 
 most unusual and most wonderful allegory. This 
 allegory runs from beginning to end, unbroken; a 
 matter of intense and illusive interest, at one time 
 quite apparent and on the surface; at another, con- 
 cealed deep within the body of description and nar- 
 rative. It proceeds like an underlying theme in a 
 symphony. It appears and disappears, but is al- 
 ways present, like the dominant idea in a Greek 
 tragedy. It persists like a paramount bias toward 
 honesty or dishonesty throughout the life of a man, 
 present to the end, whether easily seen or only dis- 
 coverable with utmost difficulty. The story or nar- 
 rative is the vehicle of the allegory, and includes the 
 allegory, but of the two the allegory is the more 
 important because it is the essential part. It is the 
 part which tells us, when we grasp it, what is com- 
 mon to all men in all ages, namely, the moral bear- 
 ings of their existence upon this Earth, and the un- 
 avoidable consequences of their acts, whereas the 
 narrative tells us only what happens to specific per- 
 sons. The narrative deals with the state of indi- 
 viduals. The allegory deals with the eternal condi- 
 tions of the human type. Mankind is the type. Men 
 are the individuals. The narrative, the description, 
 and the talk of the actors in The Divine Comedy 
 make up its body. The allegory is the soul of that
 
 DANTE 45 
 
 body. No words can set forth all this as clearly as 
 Dante's own. They are from a letter addressed to 
 a nobleman of Verona to whom part of The Comedy 
 was dedicated. "The subject is the state of the 
 soul after death, simply considered. But allegori- 
 cally taken, its subject is man, according as by his 
 good or ill deserts he renders himself liable to the 
 reward or punishment of justice." 
 
 The attraction of The Divine Comedy, for every 
 new generation, lies in the fact that it contains a 
 fascinating and lively story of daily life as lived 
 by all men and all women at all times ; a story of love 
 and hate and all of action which they beget. The 
 permanent value of The Divine Comedy lies in the 
 fact that it is a vivid exposition of the essence of 
 life. It is an exposition of that which constitutes 
 the joy and the sorrow of existence as represented 
 by the uninterrupted succession of generations, that 
 ceaseless stream of life which we recognize in the 
 unending births and never ending deaths of indi- 
 viduals.
 
 THE DIVINE COMEDY
 
 HELL 
 
 CANTO I 
 
 The opening scene of The Divine Comedy is 
 laid in a gloomy wood at the foot of a steep hill. 
 It is in this place that Dante represents himself 
 as gone astray, and unable to find the right path. 
 He is terrified by the sudden appearance of a lion, 
 a wolf and a leopard. The place, as well as the 
 three beasts, is to be taken allegorically. The place 
 means this world, gone wrong, and so gone, be- 
 cause of the proneness of human nature to yield 
 before the temptations of pride (the lion), greed 
 (the wolf), and lust (the leopard). Jeremiah v: 6, 
 "A lion out of the forest shall slay them, and a 
 wolf of the evenings shall spoil them, a leopard 
 shall watch over their cities; every one that goeth 
 out thence shall be torn in pieces." At this moment 
 of need the shade of Virgil, in accord with the 
 will of God, and the request of Beatrice, appears, 
 and the drama opens. It is the greatest of problem 
 plays ; problem set and problem solved, human yield- 
 ing, and human resistance to pride, greed, lust the 
 
 49
 
 50 
 
 DANTE 
 
 final outcome of each here on Earth, and in the 
 world to come. 
 
 HELL 
 
 When half my days were spent I found myself 
 in a dark wood, and off the right path. Ah me! 
 how hard it is to picture that forest, wild, difficult, 
 and misleading, the mere thought of which brings
 
 DANTE 51 
 
 back terror! So bitter was it that death seems 
 little worse. But to make plain the good of it all 
 to me, I will tell what I saw there. 
 
 I can not say precisely how I came into this for- 
 est, so dulled were my senses at the moment when 
 I turned from the true way. At all events after 
 I had reached the foot of a hill where the heart- 
 piercing and fearful valley ended, I looked up, 
 and saw its summit and high shoulders gleam- 
 ing in the light of the sun which leads men right 
 along every road. 
 
 After resting my weary body a little I again set 
 forth upon the barren hillside, the firm foot al- 
 ways the lower. And, behold! almost at the be- 
 ginning of my climb there appeared a she-leopard, 
 lithe, and very nimble, with spotted skin. She did 
 not make way for me, nay, blocked my road so 
 that many times I thought to turn back. 
 
 The time was early morning, and the Sun was 
 rising along with the stars that were with Him when 
 Divine Love first set those beautiful things in mo- 
 tion ; so that the hour and the season gave me good 
 hope of prevailing over the wild beast with the 
 spotted hide. But it was different when a lion ap- 
 peared and drew near, ravenous with hunger, toss- 
 ing his head, so that the very air trembled with 
 fright; and then a she-wolf which in her leanness 
 seemed naught but a creature of hunger, and before 
 this time to have made wretched the lives of many
 
 52 DANTE 
 
 men. She filled my heart with such heavy fore- 
 bodings, that I lost hope of reaching the hill top. 
 
 DANTE NOW FALLS BACK A LITTLE 
 
 While I was on my downward way, one who 
 seemed to have lost the use of his voice through long 
 silence appeared. I cried : 
 
 "Have pity! whatever you are, whether ghost or 
 living man." 
 
 VIRGIL 
 
 "Not man, though once I was a man, and my par- 
 ents were Lombards, and each a citizen of Mantua. 
 I was born in the time of Julius, though late, and I 
 lived at Rome in the day of false and untrue gods. 
 I was a poet and I sang of that just son of Anchises 
 who left Troy after proud Ilion had been burned. 
 But you, why do you return to trouble? Why do 
 you not climb the pleasant hill which is the source 
 and cause of every joy?" 
 
 DANTE 
 
 "Are you then that Virgil and that fount which 
 pours forth so broad a stream of speech? O honor 
 and light of the other poets ! may the long study and 
 the great love now serve me which led me to search 
 your writings. You are my master and my model ; 
 you alone are he from whom I took the beautiful
 
 DANTE ft 
 
 style that has brought me praise. Behold the beast 
 which made me turn; help me to overcome her." 1 
 
 VIRGIL 
 
 "It behooves you to change your course if you 
 wish to escape from this wild place. Wherefore I 
 will be your guide and lead you through eternal 
 Hell where you shall hear shrieks of despair, and 
 see the unhappy spirits of old time who one and all 
 invoke the second death. 2 And then you shall see 
 those who are contented in penitential fire because 
 they hope to be gathered ultimately to the blest, to 
 whom, if you would ascend, there shall be a soul 
 to guide you worthier than I. With her will I 
 leave you ; for that Emperor who reigns thereabove 
 denies, because I was not compliant to His law 3 that 
 through me any one should enter His city. There 
 He reigns and everywhere governs. There is His 
 city and His lofty throne. O happy soul whom He 
 thereto elects !" 
 
 DANTE 
 
 "Poet, I implore you, by that God whom you 
 
 1 The lion, symbol of pride. 
 
 * Either those who express a wish for annihilation, or those 
 who proclaim "the second death," meaning the state of the 
 damned after the last judgment, when they shall be reclothed 
 in their flesh, their sufferings increased and their condition 
 fixed for all eternity. "This is the second death." Rev. xx. 
 12, 13, 14. "He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the sec- 
 ond death." Rev. ii. 11. 
 
 1 Virgil was not a Christian.
 
 54 DANTE 
 
 knew not, in order that I may escape these present 
 ills and worse, that you guide me to the place of 
 which you have just spoken so that I may look upon 
 the gate of St. Peter* and upon those in misery of 
 whom you have told !" 
 
 CANTO II 
 
 The same wood as in Canto I. Dante's courage 
 for undertaking the journey begins to ooze away, 
 but Virgil braces him up by telling him how 
 Beatrice, incited by St. Lucy, Dante's patron saint, 
 herself having been moved to action on his behalf 
 by the Blessed Virgin, came to him, Virgil, and be- 
 sought him to go to the assistance of his brother 
 poet. On being assured of all this heavenly interest, 
 Dante declares himself ready, and the two set out. 
 The canto opens with one of those beautiful figures 
 based on nature, and true to her in that absolute 
 manner which alone characterizes the greatest art. 
 Homely, lovely, above all, direct and simple, every 
 figure used by Dante is drawn from those things 
 which all men, in all generations, and all lands, care 
 for and know. 
 
 The day was dying and twilight was bringing 
 rest to the living creatures of the Earth after their 
 labors, and I, solitary, was preparing for the hard- 
 
 4 The Gate of Purgatory.
 
 DANTE 55 
 
 ships of a journey the sufferings of which my mem- 
 ory that errs not shall recount. 
 
 Then follows an appeal for help to the Muses, 
 and to Virgil, and lastly a declaration about his 
 own memory whose stores, gathered during the 
 journey, he is about to draw upon in writing The 
 Comedy. But at this point the natural man, over- 
 come with fear at what he is about to undertake, 
 again shows himself. 
 
 DANTE 
 
 "My poet-guide, consider my strength before you 
 trust me to the abyss. You say 1 that ^neas while 
 still in the flesh went to the immortal world, and 
 was there in the body. Through his journey which 
 you celebrate, he learned things that brought him 
 victory, and prepared the way for papal authority. 2 
 Later, St. Paul went to bring back support for that 
 faith which is the beginning of the way of salvation. 
 But I, why should I go? and by whose authority? I 
 am not ^neas, I am not Paul ; neither I, nor others, 
 believe me worthy; wherefore if I consent to go I 
 fear it may be mad." 
 
 VIRGIL 
 
 "If I have rightly understood your words, your 
 
 Book VI. 
 
 "The success of ^neas, his victory in Italy, made the 
 founding of the Empire possible, and Rome a place for the 
 Papacy.
 
 56 DANTE 
 
 very soul is afraid, which condition often hinders a 
 man so that it turns him back from honorable un- 
 dertakings, as a mistake of sight does a shying 
 beast. In order that you may rid yourself of this 
 fear I will tell you why I came, and what I heard 
 at the instant that I began to grieve for you. I was 
 among those who are in the intermediate state, 8 
 when a blessed and beautiful lady* called me in 
 suchwise that I besought her to command. Her 
 eyes were brighter than the stars, and she began to 
 say to me in low, sweet tones, an angel's voice : *O 
 courteous Mantuan spirit! whose fame yet lasts on 
 Earth, and shall to the end of time ! a friend of mine, 
 but not of fortune, is so hindered on the steep hill- 
 side that he has turned back through fright, and, 
 from what I have heard, I fear may already be so 
 far lost as to make help vain. Go now, and with 
 your splendid words, and with whatever is needful 
 for his deliverance, aid him so that I may be com- 
 forted. I am Beatrice, who bid you go. I come 
 from a place whither I long to return. Love moved 
 me, and makes me speak. When I shall again be in 
 the presence of my Lord I will often praise you to 
 Him/ 
 
 "Then she was silent and I began: *O lady of 
 Virtue, your command, were it already in execution, 
 would be too slowly obeyed. You need explain your 
 
 * Limbo, the place of spirits neither saved nor damned. 
 4 Beatrice.
 
 DANTE 57 
 
 will no further to me, but tell me pray, why you are 
 not afraid to descend into this place from that spa- 
 cious realm whither you are so intent to return.' 
 
 " 'Because you are so eager to know I will tell 
 you briefly,' she replied, 'why I do not fear to come 
 down here. I am constituted by God, thanks be, 
 such that your sufferings move me not. A gentle 
 Lady 5 in Paradise feels pity for the straying one to 
 whom I send you, so that she breaks Heaven's stern 
 rule. It was she who called St. Lucy, saying, "Your 
 faithful one has need of you, and I commend him 
 to you !", Thereon St. Lucy came to the place where 
 I was, and said: "Beatrice, true praise of God, 
 why do you not go to the succor of him who so 
 loved you that for your sake he came forth from 
 the common crowd? Do you not hear the anguish 
 of his cry ? Do you not see how death threatens him 
 on life's rushing torrent which is no less terrible 
 than the sea?"'" 
 
 Virgil, continuing his story, says that Beatrice 
 acted instantly on hearing the words of St. Lucy, 
 and descended to Limbo where she found him. At 
 her request, he, Virgil, set out, and discovered Dante 
 on the desert hillside. 
 
 The Virgin. 
 
 6 Tn order to write worthily of Beatrice he gave his life to 
 shuly, which is an occupation that always withdraws a man 
 from the majority of his fellow men the throng.
 
 58 DANTE 
 
 VIRGIL 
 
 "And I came to you as she wished, and took you 
 away from the savage beast. What is it then ? Why, 
 why do you draw back? Why harbor such cow- 
 ardice in your heart? How can you lack daring 
 and assurance, when three such blessed Ladies care 
 for you in the court of Heaven, and my words 
 pledge you so much good?" 
 
 DANTE 
 
 "Now go, for truly we are of one mind, you 
 guide, you lord, you master." 
 
 The first and second cantos form an introduction 
 to all that follows, by relating the cause of Dante's 
 journey to the other world, and by telling how it 
 came about that Virgil was his guide. These two 
 cantos, or scenes, bring guide and traveler to the 
 Gate of Hell, the passing of which occurs in the 
 third canto, where the first true note of aw fulness 
 is sounded, and the twilight of the underworld be- 
 gins to deepen on them, and the reader, and they, 
 take passage with Charon, and cross the River 
 Acheron, and are landed on the bourn from 
 which no traveler returns. From then on to the 
 end, the way lies downward through the ever nar- 
 rowing circles of the abyss, and among the spirits 
 of greater and greater sinners until, in the very pit
 
 'DANTE 59 
 
 of Hell, they find the greatest of all sinners, Judas 
 Iscariot. Scene upon scene, it is one vast picture, 
 one gigantic act, in which the sense of horror, and 
 unavailing regret, expressed in the words of the 
 damned, are drawn in colors of ever increasing 
 darkness. At any given point in the going-down 
 one has the impression that no sufferings more ter- 
 rible, or words more hopeless, or acts more blasphe- 
 mous, or gloom more impenetrable can be. At the 
 next descent, in the next moment, worse and blacker 
 are realized. It is great art, this, the power to 
 command the gradation of one's medium, in Dante's 
 case words, in such delicate manner as to produce an 
 effect of steadily increasing fear and gloom, unfal- 
 teringly sustained throughout thirty-four successive 
 scenes. Such art implies fineness of touch, strength 
 and precision of technique, to have been at the in- 
 stant and continuous beck of the poet. It reflects 
 that inner or spiritual vigor, and exquisiteness, 
 which are the sine qua non of genius. The same is 
 just as true of the really great musician, sculptor, 
 painter; of Beethoven, Phidias, Raphael. With 
 these, as with Dante, the power to see fine distinc- 
 tions, and express them, which is art, by means of 
 gradation of medium, is the sign perfect. In every- 
 day language, great artists do not use all their poW- 
 der at the first shot, to do which, in the literal battle 
 of life, is no less a proof of inferiority than in the 
 spiritual. In this latter battle, the great art of the
 
 60 DANTE 
 
 world is the one incalculably precious sign of vic- 
 tory. 
 
 CANTO III 
 
 The Gate of Hell leading to a sort of ante- 
 chamber, really the vestibule of Hell proper, which 
 is on the far side of the River Acheron. The 
 scene of this canto is laid on the near bank of 
 Acheron and just within the gate. 
 
 It is the place assigned to the souls of the indif- 
 ferent, those who on Earth had been neither good 
 nor bad; those really who through all generations 
 form the congregation of Laodicea. Revelation, 
 iii:16. "So then because thou art lukewarm, and 
 neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my 
 mouth." It is just what Heaven and Hell, alike, 
 had done to these souls. Passing among them the 
 poets come to the bank of Acheron. Here an 
 earthquake and lightning terrify Dante and he 
 swoons. 
 
 Above the gate the inscription : 
 
 Through me is the way into the woeful city; 
 through me is the way to everlasting misery: 
 through me is the way that leads among the lost. 
 Justice moved my high creator; divine Power, su- 
 preme Wisdom, fundamental Love made me. 1 Be- 
 
 1 Power, Wisdom and Love are here used to represent the 
 three persons of the Trinity: the Father, Son and Holy 
 Spirit, respectively.
 
 DANTE 61 
 
 fore me were no created things, save eternal, and 
 I eternal last. 2 Who enters must abandon every 
 hope. 
 
 DANTE 
 
 "Master, the meaning of the words appals me." 
 
 VIRGIL 
 
 "This is no place for fear. All cowardice should 
 here be dead." 
 
 Thereupon Virgil takes him by the hand, gives 
 him a reassuring look, and leads him through the 
 gate where, within, on all sides, 
 
 laments, sighs and loud wails resound through the 
 starless air, and where are heard unknown tongues, 
 horrible utterances, words of agony, accents of 
 wrath. 
 
 DANTE 
 
 "What is it that I hear? and who are the people 
 that appear to be so crushed by their wretched- 
 ness?" 
 
 VIRGIL 
 
 "The miserable souls of those who lived without 
 
 * Hell was created at the time the angels rebelled against 
 God. At that time the only existent things were imperishable 
 and everlasting, such as angels and the rest of the hierarchy 
 of Heaven.
 
 62 DANTE 
 
 infamy and without praise. They are mingled with 
 those despicable angels who neither rebelled against 
 God nor were on His side, but were for themselves.' 
 The Heavens drove them out lest their brightness 
 should be dimmed by such a presence, and the abyss 
 of Hell refused them lest the damned should have 
 some joy in extolling themselves by comparison." 
 
 DANTE 
 
 "Master, what is so grievous to them? What 
 makes them lament so bitterly?" 
 
 VIRGIL 
 
 "I will tell you in few words. They have no 
 hope of death, 3 and their blind existence is so de- 
 graded that they envy every other lot. Memory of 
 them is not on Earth ; pity disdains them, and justice 
 too. Let us not speak of them, but look and go on." 
 
 These wretches who never were alive, were 
 naked, and much stung by gad-flies and by wasps; 
 their faces were streaked with bloocf, which, min- 
 gling with tears, was gathered at their feet by sick- 
 ening worms. 
 
 Dante and Virgil now draw near to the banks of 
 
 * The second death, when if annihilation could come to them 
 it would be a blessing.
 
 DANTE 63 
 
 Acheron and see Charon, keeper of the ferry of 
 Hell, coming toward the shore in his boat. 
 
 CHARON 
 
 "Woe to you, wicked souls ! hope never more to 
 see the day ! I come to take you to the other shore, 
 into everlasting night, into heat, and cold. But you 
 who are a living soul depart from these that are 
 
 dead." 
 
 
 VIRGIL 
 
 "Be not vexed, Charon; it is so willed there 
 where is power to carry out what is willed." 
 
 A marvelous account follows of how all the 
 souls on the bank, blaspheming and weeping, em- 
 bark, Charon beating with his oar whoever lags. 
 And then, in contrast to this picture of horror and 
 haste, a beautiful figurative passage of intense calm, 
 and solemn meaning, one of the many lovely pas- 
 sages which, sprinkled throughout the Hell, inten- 
 sify the aw fulness of its real character, at times 
 almost beyond endurance. 
 
 As leaves in autumn drop one after another until 
 the bough is bare, so the sinful seed of Adam when 
 summoned, cast themselves, one by one, from the 
 shore. Thus they cross the dark waves, and ere
 
 64 DANTE 
 
 they are landed on the far bank a new crowd has 
 assembled on the near. 
 
 "My son, those who die in the wrath of God are 
 all assembled here from every land. They are eager 
 to cross the stream for divine justice so pricks them 
 that fear is turned into desire. A good soul never 
 passes this way: and so, if Charon frets, you can 
 easily comprehend the meaning of his words." 
 
 Now comes the earthquake, the wind and a flash 
 of crimson light, and Dante falls senseless like one 
 on whom sleep lays hold. 
 
 CANTO IV 
 
 The far side of Acheron. The first circle of 
 Hell, Limbo, the dwelling place of the souls of 
 unbaptized infants, and upright heathen, those who 
 through no fault of their own did not know God, 
 in the technical sense of being initiated into Chris- 
 tianity through baptism and faith in Christ. Dante 
 and Virgil pass through the outer walls of a castle 
 and discover the noble-minded of ancient times 
 gathered on the green within. 
 
 They are met by Homer and the other poets. 
 Virgil points out the philosophers, among them
 
 DANTE 65 
 
 Plato and Aristotle; also famous historical person- 
 ages, other than philosophers and poets. The pun- 
 ishment of this circle is wholly negative. The lines 
 have fallen to these shades in pleasant places, and 
 their suffering is confined to an eternal desire, with- 
 out hope, to see God. 
 
 VIRGIL 
 
 "Now I would have you know, before you go on, 
 that these were people who lived without sin; and 
 though they have merits, it is not enough because 
 they did not have baptism; and since they lived 
 before Christianity, they did not properly worship 
 God; and of such am I myself. For such failing, 
 and not for other fault are we lost, and so far 
 hurt, that in desire we continue without hope." 
 
 Great sorrow came into my heart when I heard 
 him, because I realized that people of high worth 
 
 must be here. 
 
 f 
 
 '. DANTE 
 
 "Tell me, my master, tell me, Lord, did ever any 
 one who later reached Paradise go forth from here, 
 either through his own merit, or that of another?" 
 
 VIRGIL 
 
 "I was new here 1 when I saw a Mighty One 
 
 /Virgil died 19 B. C, so he had been but short while in 
 Limbo when Christ descended into Hell.
 
 66 DANTE 
 
 come hither crowned with sign of victory. He drew 
 forth the shade of our first parent, of Abel his son, 
 and that of Noah, of Moses the law-giver, Abra- 
 ham the patriarch, and David the King, Israel with 
 his father and his descendants, and with Rachel for 
 whose sake he served so long, and many others; 
 and these he carried to Paradise. And I would 
 have you understand that before this the souls of 
 men were not saved." 
 
 They now come to the walls of a castle and enter 
 it. While still a little distant Dante recognizes the 
 fact that here are spirits whose condition is superior 
 to that of the rank and file in Limbo. 
 
 DANTE 
 
 "O thou in whom learning and art are honored, 
 who are these who have such glory, that it exalts 
 them above the others ?" 
 
 VIRGIL 
 
 "Their glorious reputation, which is still re- 
 hearsed among the living, gains grace in Heaven 
 which so uplifts them." 
 
 At this I heard a voice : 
 
 "Honor to the loftiest poet! his shade returns 
 which had departed !"
 
 DANTE 67. 
 
 When the voice ceased, I saw four mighty spirits 
 coming toward us ; their faces neither sad nor glad. 
 
 VIRGIL 
 
 "Behold him who comes, sword in hand, before 
 the other three, even as lord; he is Homer, the su- 
 preme poet; the next is Horace; Ovid is the third, 
 and the last is Lucan. Because each of them enjoys, 
 as I do, the name poet, which the single voice pro- 
 claimed, they do me honor, and in that do well." 
 
 Thus I saw gathered together the beautiful school 
 of that consummate lord of song who wings his flight 
 above the others like an eagle. After some talk 
 among themselves they turned and saluted me; at 
 this my master smiled. And much more honor yet 
 they showed me, for they made me one of their 
 company, so that I became the sixth amid so much 
 knowledge. Thereupon we moved forward, speak- 
 ing of things about which it is here right to keep 
 silence, even as there it was proper to speak. 
 
 In company with these five poets Dante sees 
 many spirits: 
 
 whose eyes were slow, and grave, and who were 
 of high authority in appearance; who spoke little 
 and with low voices. We drew to one side so that 
 all could be seen. There before me on the green
 
 68 DANTE 
 
 were pointed out the great spirits to have seen 
 whom rejoices my soul. 
 
 I saw Electra 2 with many companions, among 
 whom I recognized Hector and tineas, and Caesar 
 in mail, with his piercing eyes. I saw Camilla and 
 Penthesilea, and on the other side I beheld King 
 Latinus who was sitting with Lavinia his daughter. 
 I saw that Lrutus who drove out Tarquin ; Lucretia, 
 Julia, Marcia and Cornelia; and Saladin, apart and 
 alone. When I lifted my eyes a little more I beheld 
 Aristotle, master of the wise, seated amid the philo- 
 sophic family; all eyes were on him; all did him 
 reverence. Here I saw Socrates and Plato, who, 
 before others, stand nearest to him. I can not re- 
 cord the entire list, because my long theme so 
 presses that words must often be cut short while 
 there is yet much to tell. 
 
 The works of Raphael in the Vatican, his School 
 of Athens, Parnassus and Dispute of the Sacra- 
 ment, are the only things in art, of the same sort, 
 
 * Electra, not the Greek heroine, but the mother of Darda- 
 nus, who was the founder of Troy. All of the persons men- 
 tioned before Saladin were in some conspicuous way con- 
 nected with Troy and Rome. Saladin is introduced as an 
 example of noble character drawn from a race wholly apart 
 from Trojan or Latin origins. Then follow the learned in all 
 branches of human knowledge, led, of course, by the philoso- 
 phers, first Aristotle, and ending with the name of the famous 
 Arabian Averrhoes, who made "the great comment" on Aris- 
 totle, the Latin translation of which (1250) brought the works 
 of the philosopher to the notice of the Western world, i. e., to 
 Europe.
 
 DANTE 69 
 
 and comparable to Dante's vision of the noblest 
 exponents of Philosophy and Science, as set out 
 in this fourth canto of Hell. And if, as it has 
 often been argued, Dante displayed the essence of 
 pride when he described himself as being made "the 
 sixth in so great a company," does not Raphael do 
 the same thing in his pictures, and put himself 
 among such persons? And in both instances, time, 
 which is the prover of art, has set its approbation 
 upon these acts, and declared their authors, Dante 
 and Raphael, to belong in those annals of fame 
 where, in the short life, they put themselves. 
 Raphael groups Homer with others, but none the 
 less sets him alone, just as Dante does. And again 
 when Raphael places Dante among the divines of 
 the Disputa it is but the adequate recognition of 
 superlative greatness, in a manner that does not fail 
 of being itself superlatively great. The only real 
 hall of fame is such as Dante created, and peopled, 
 in his fourth canto; such as Raphael created, and 
 peopled, in his Vatican pictures. 
 
 CANTO v 
 
 With this canto the real, what might almost be 
 called the physical, sufferings of Hell begin. The 
 scene is laid in the second circle, that just below 
 Limbo, 
 
 a place where there is no light, that roars like the
 
 70 DANTE 
 
 sea in a gale; where the infernal hurricane, which 
 never ceases, drives on the spirits with its blast 
 hither and thither, down and up; where they are 
 swept forward and no hope ever soothes them, 
 either of repose, or of less suffering. 
 
 At the entrance stands Minos, a horrible creature 
 borrowed from classical mythology, who acts as 
 judge of the damned and decides on the circle to 
 which each is to descend. 
 
 In this dark atmosphere of everlasting restless- 
 ness, symbolizing the tempest of carnal passion, 
 souls suffer for the unchastity of their lives on 
 Earth. Virgil points out Achilles, Dido, Cleopatra, 
 
 and Semiramis 
 
 i 
 
 who by law made lust legal. 
 
 After I had heard my teacher name the lords and 
 ladies of old time, pity overwhelmed me and I was 
 well-nigh bewildered. 
 
 DANTE 
 
 "Poet, gladly would I talk with those two who 
 are together, and appear so light upon the hurri- 
 cane." 
 
 VIRGIL 
 
 "Watch when they are near and then, by the love 
 which binds them, ask them and they will come."
 
 DANTE 71 
 
 Soon as tne wind swept them toward us, I cried 
 out: 
 
 "O weary souls, come and talk with us, if An- 
 other 1 forbid it not." 
 
 ONE OF THESE TWO FRANCESCA 
 
 "O living man, gentle and kind, who goes 
 through the darkness visiting us who stained the 
 world blood-red, 2 if the King of the universe were 
 friendly we would pray Him to grant you peace, 
 because you have pity on our misery. Of what you 
 wish to hear and say we will hear and speak to you 
 while the hurricane, as at present, is lulled. The 
 city in which I was born is on the sea-shore where 
 the Po, with his tributaries, flows down to peace. 
 Love which quickly lays hold on gentle hearts, laid 
 hold on this one because of the fair form that in 
 death was taken from me, and the way even yet 
 hurts me. Love which absolves no lover from lov- 
 ing, moved me so mightily with the wish to please 
 him that, as you see, the wish does even yet con- 
 tinue. Love brought us to the same death. Cain 8 
 awaits him who took our life." 
 
 Dante bows his head in silence. 
 
 'God. 
 
 1 Meaning that adultery often leads to murder. 
 "The circle called Caina, deep down in Hell, where fratri- 
 cides are punished.
 
 72 DANTE 
 
 VIRGIL 
 
 "What are you thinking about ?" 
 
 DANTE 
 
 "Of how many sweet thoughts, of what great 
 rapture, led this pair to these pitiable straits. 
 
 "Francesca, your misery makes me weep. But 
 tell me, in the season of sweet sighs, by what stages 
 and how, did your love to passion turn ?" 
 
 FRANCESCA 
 
 " 'A sorrow's crown of sorrow Is remembering 
 happier things/ 4 and this your teacher 5 knows. 
 But if you wish to learn of the beginnings of our 
 passion I will do like one who weeps and tells. 
 
 "One day for pastime we were reading of Lance- 
 lot, and how love conquered him. We were alone 
 and unfearful of discovery. Many times the story 
 brought our eyes together, and paled our cheeks, but 
 only a single point overcame us wholly. When we 
 read of the longed-for smile being kissed by such a 
 lover, this one, who never more shall be separated 
 from me, kissed my trembling lips. Galahaut was 
 the book. That day we read no more." 
 
 * Tennyson's line in In Memoriam is a perfect translation o 
 the meaning of Francesca's words. 
 'VirgiL
 
 DANTE 73 
 
 In every generation, and wherever men have 
 cared deeply for the "breath and finer spirit of all 
 knowledge" cast into the form of poetry, or for 
 intense and controlled reciting, in words of incan- 
 descent meaning, the things of good and evil that 
 befall our human lot, then and there the Francesca 
 story, as told by Dante, has been regarded as per- 
 fect art. Some feel its indescribable beauty as 
 Leigh Hunt, who said that the episode of Francesca 
 is "like a lily in the mouth of Tartarus"; others, 
 like Carlyle, receive through it a present and endur- 
 ing counsel from the abyss of all understanding; 
 "Infinite pity yet also infinite rigor of law ; it is so 
 Nature is made: it is so Dante discerned she was 
 made." Again, in Heroes and Hero Worship, but 
 more in the strain of Leigh Hunt, Carlyle calls the 
 Francesca story "a thing woven as out of rainbows 
 on a ground of eternal black." 
 
 CANTO VI 
 
 In the third circle those are punished who in 
 life were gluttons. 
 
 CANTO VII 
 
 The fourth circle, where the souls of misers, 
 those who hoarded their possessions, and of spend- 
 thrifts, those who squandered theirs, are punished.
 
 74 DANTE 
 
 CANTO VIII 
 
 The Stygian marsh where are the souls of those 
 whom anger overcame, in the sense of leading them 
 to acts of wrath and open violence. On the far 
 side of the marsh rises the encircling wall of Dis, 
 the innermost dwelling place of Hell where the 
 worst sinners are gathered. Dante and Virgil are 
 ferried across the marsh and at one point a shade, 
 choked with mire, cries out: 
 
 "Who are you that come before your time ?" 
 
 DANTE 
 
 "If I come I do not remain; but who are you, 
 filthy creature ?" 
 
 SHADE 
 
 "You see that I am one of those who weep." 
 
 DANTE 
 
 "With weeping and with grief continue, cursed 
 spirit, for in spite of all your filth I recognize you." 
 
 Then he reached out with both hands toward our 
 boat whereat my cautious leader thrust him back, 
 saying, "Get you gone along with the other dogs." 
 After this Virgil threw his arms about my neck and 
 kissed me, and said : "Blessed be she that bore you ! 
 Among the living he was an arrogant mortal. No
 
 DANTE 75 
 
 act of kindness sweetens his memory. That is why 
 his spirit is here consumed with fury. How many, 
 this moment, up there among the living are reputed 
 great rulers who are destined down here to wallow 
 like swine in mire, leaving behind them memories 
 of fearful blame." 
 
 DANTE 
 
 "Master, I would gladly see him doused before we 
 leave the marsh." 
 
 VIRGIL 
 
 "Before we see the other shore you shall have 
 your wish. It is right that you enjoy fulfilment of 
 such desire." 
 
 A little later I saw such rending of him by the 
 muddy ones that I still praise God for it, and thank 
 Him. All shrieked, "At Filippo Argenti!" 1 and 
 the furious Florentine shade, enraged, bit himself 
 with his own teeth. 
 
 CANTO IX 
 
 The end of Canto VIII, and the greater part of 
 Canto IX, is taken up with an account of the diffi- 
 culties which Virgil and Dante encountered while 
 
 1 He was one of Dante's most bitter opponents in Florence, 
 a man long forgotten save for Dante, who has made his name 
 the synonym for a hot-tempered, hard, rich man, which he 
 was known for in his own day.
 
 76 DANTE 
 
 trying to get entrance at the gate of Dis, the walls 
 of which are guarded by Furies. Finally, a mess- 
 enger is sent from Heaven and the gate opened. 
 Once inside, Dante looks around him and discovers 
 a great plain full of woe and cruel torments. 
 
 As at Aries 1 where the Rhone spreads out its 
 mouths, as at Pola, near the Quarnaro 2 which hems 
 in Italy and bathes her borders, the whole place is 
 uneven with tombs, so was it here, except that the 
 manner was harsher, for flames were sprinkled 
 among these sepulchres by which they were so tre- 
 mendously heated that no handicraft requires iron 
 to be hotter. Every one had its lid up, and fearful 
 wails were issuing; such wails as did indeed seem 
 the shrieks of great and fearful sufferers. 
 
 DANTE 
 
 "Master, who are they that lying within these 
 coffers make themselves known by their terrible 
 cries?" 
 
 VIRGIL 
 
 "Here are the archheretics with their adherents 
 of every sect, and the tombs are much fuller than 
 you suspect." 
 
 *Town near the mouth of the Rhone. 
 1 The Gulf of Quarnaro.
 
 DANTE 77 
 
 CANTO X 
 
 Among the fiery tombs, the same as in Canto IX. 
 In this place are punished those heretics who main- 
 tained that the soul dies with the body. 
 
 DANTE 
 
 "O Supreme Virtue that leads me as you will 
 through the hateful circles of the damned, speak to 
 me and satisfy my longings. The people that are 
 lying in these tombs, might I see them? All the 
 lids are up and no one is on guard." 
 
 VIRGIL 
 
 "Every one of them will be locked in when they 
 shall come back from Jehoshaphat 1 with the bodies 
 which they have left on Earth." 
 
 SHADE, ADDRESSING DANTE FROM ONE 
 OF THE TOMBS 
 
 "O Tuscan, picking your way through this city of 
 fire, may it please you to tarry for a moment. Your 
 manner of speaking makes it plain that you are a 
 native of that noble fatherland toward which I was 
 perhaps too vindictive." 
 
 'The valley of Jehoshaphat was believed to be ttte place 
 where the Last Judgment was to occur and thereiore the 
 place where the dead would resume their physical bodies.
 
 78 DANTE 
 
 Fearful, Dante draws close up to Virgil. 
 
 VIRGIL 
 
 "What are you doing? Turn! Look there, be- 
 hold Farinata 2 who has risen erect. From the waist 
 up you will see him." 
 
 I had already fixed my gaze square on his face, 
 and he was straightening himself up, chest and 
 front, as if he held Hell in scorn. My leader, with 
 sure and daring hands, pushed me among the tombs 
 saying : 
 
 "Make your words plain." 
 
 When I reached the foot of his sepulchre he 
 looked at me a moment, and then, contemptuously : 
 
 "Who were your ancestors ?" j 
 
 I, who was anxious to obey, concealed nothing, 
 but told him all ; at this he raised his brows a trifle ; 
 then said : 
 
 "They were fiercely hostile to me and to my for- 
 bears, and to my party, so that twice I dispersed 
 them." 
 
 "If they were scattered they gathered again from 
 every side on both occasions, the art of doing which 
 yours have not mastered," I replied to him. 
 
 At this moment there rose alongside Farinata a 
 shade, visible from his chin up. I think it had risen 
 
 'Farinata was banished from Florence, and later he was 
 largely instrumental in bringing about the defeat of the Flor- 
 entines at the battle of Montaperti, September, A. D. 1260.
 
 DANTE 79: 
 
 on its knees. It looked around as if wishing to 
 learn whether there were some one with me. But 
 when it saw that I was alone, weeping it said : 
 
 "If on account of your lofty genius you are per- 
 mitted to go through this dark prison, where is my 
 son,* and why is he not with you ?" 
 
 DANTE 
 
 "I come not of myself. He who waits yonder is 
 leading me. Mayhap your Guido held him in dis- 
 dain."* 
 
 Suddenly, straightening up, the shade exclaims : 
 
 "Did you say : 'He held?' Is he then no longer 
 among the living?" 
 
 Perceiving on my part some delay in answering, 
 he swooned and was no longer visible. 
 
 But that haughty soul at whose request I had 
 tarried, did not change a feature, or turn his neck, 
 or move his body. 
 
 FARINATA 
 
 "And if (going on from where he had been in- 
 terrupted) they have not mastered the art of re- 
 turning that gives me greater anguish than this bed." 
 
 * The shade here speaking to Dante was that of one Caval- 
 eanti, father of the dearest friend of Dante's youth, a poet 
 like himself. 
 
 * Guido Cavalcanti urged Dante to write in the vulgar 
 tongue, i. e., in Italian rather than Latin. This might he 
 interpreted as an act of disrespect to Virgil, who wrote in 
 Latin.
 
 80 DANTE 
 
 After more conversation in which Dante learns 
 that he has misunderstood the shade's question about 
 his son, he tries to make amends for not having re- 
 plied at once that he was alive. 
 
 "Tell him," I said, "that I did not answer because 
 I did not understand. Tell him that his son is still 
 among the living." 
 
 No canto in the trilogy is finer in respect to 
 character drawing. Few and disdainful as are the 
 words of the superb Farinata, impatient of Caval- 
 canti's interruption as one might be of a child's, 
 they give a perfect idea of the man himself. Few 
 and pathetic as are the words in which Caval- 
 canti displays fatherly pride in his son, and fatherly 
 grief, they compel the reader to know what sort 
 of man he was. Few as are Dante's words, and 
 full of thoughtful sympathy for the pain he has 
 unwittingly given Cavalcanti, or terse and proud 
 as are his answers to Farinata's haughty remarks, 
 Dante depicts himself beyond chance of misunder- 
 standing, as the high-spirited, sometimes stiff- 
 necked, but kindest-hearted of gentlemen. Pride 
 of family, contempt of surroundings, the flash of 
 regret, and parental tenderness are made to live 
 in their very essence, in the characters of these 
 two shades Farinata and Cavalcanti to whom 
 Dante, as to many of the souls of the dead, has given
 
 DANTE 81 
 
 immortality, not to mention the immortality which, 
 through bestowing so freely upon others, he be- 
 stowed so indubitably upon himself. 
 
 CANTO XI 
 
 Walking among the red-hot tombs Dante and Vir- 
 gil at last reach the inner edge of the circle and find 
 themselves close to the wall where it falls away to 
 the pit below. 
 
 Here, because of the horrible stench which the 
 abyss threw out, we drew to one side behind the lid 
 of a great tomb. 
 
 While waiting to become accustomed to the 
 stench, Virgil discourses to Dante about the divisions 
 of Hell lower down, and about the sins punished in 
 each. 
 
 VIRGIL 
 
 "Injury is the intended end of every sin which 
 is hated in Heaven, and every such intention brings 
 trouble to others, either through violence, or through 
 fraud. But since fraud is peculiar to man alone, 
 it all the more angers God, and for this reason the 
 fraudulent are lower down, and their lot is worse." 
 
 In the jparts of Hell which are above Dis, only
 
 82 DANTE 
 
 sins of incontinence are punished, such as lust and 
 greed. Thus the three great divisions of Hell are 
 apportioned in descending order, to those who have 
 sinned through incontinence, through violence, 
 through fraud. We have now come to the violent, 
 and Virgil explains how violence may be done to 
 three persons, and hence is of three sorts, and how 
 to each of these, a subdivision or round of the sev- 
 enth circle of Hell is devoted. 
 
 VIRGIL 
 
 "To God, to one's self, to one's neighbor, may 
 violence be done." 
 
 He then goes on to show the twofold form which 
 violence may assume in each of these cases. To- 
 ward God by blasphemy, or by violating the laws 
 of nature; toward one's self by suicide, or by wast- 
 ing one's own possessions; toward one's neighbor, 
 by murder, or stealing his goods. Of fraud he dis- 
 tinguishes two kinds: that which may be practised 
 on a friend, one who has faith in you, and that 
 which may be practised on those who have no reason 
 to place confidence in you. In the latter case the 
 common bond of love which binds, or should bind, 
 all men, is broken. In the former, that bond which 
 binds friends, or makes for love of native land, is 
 broken.
 
 DANTE 83 
 
 CANTO XII 
 
 Seventh circle divided into three concentric rings. 
 
 Virgil and Dante have descended from the edge 
 of Upper Hell into the first circle of Lower Hell, 
 the seventh, in order, from the top down ; from the 
 places of Incontinence, to the places of Violence 
 and Malice. This descent was 
 
 alpine, and because of the creature that was lying 
 there such as every eye would shun. As is the land- 
 slide which on this side of Trent, struck the Adige 
 on its flank, either as the result of earthquake, or 
 because the rocks gave way, for from the mountain's 
 summit where it started, to the plain, the cliffs have 
 been so broken in their fall that it is barely possible 
 to clamber down, such was the descent into this pit. 
 On the rim of the chasm, stretched out, lay the in- 
 famy of Crete 1 that was conceived in the false cow. 
 And when he saw us he began to bite himself as if 
 consumed by inward anger. 
 
 VIRGIL 
 
 "Perhaps you take this one with me to be the 
 Duke of Athens; 2 he who in the world killed you? 
 
 1 The Minotaur, symbol of violence and fury, half bull, half 
 man. "The infamy of Crete" because of his infamous origin. 
 VI. /Eneid. 
 
 'Theseus, called Duke of Athens, who, with the help of 
 Ariadne's thread, found his way out of the Cretan labyrinth 
 after he had slain the Minotaur.
 
 84 DANTE 
 
 Be gone, beast! He does not come instructed by 
 your sister, but he goes to behold your punishments." 
 Like the bull which breaks his halter at the instant 
 he receives his death blow and, unable to advance, 
 plunges right and left, such I beheld the Minotaur. 
 
 VIRGIL 
 
 "Run! while he rages we must make the most of 
 our chance." 
 
 So we picked our way down over the fallen stones 
 that often moved beneath my feet which, in that 
 place, were an unusual burden. Deep in thought, I 
 made the descent. 
 
 VIRGIL 
 
 "You are perhaps thinking about this ruinous 
 landslide which is guarded by the angry beast that 
 I just now silenced. Know then, that on the other 
 occasion when I descended into this Lower Hell the 
 cliff had not yet fallen. But indeed, if I am not 
 mistaken, a little before He came who levied the 
 great toll on Hell 3 the deep and filthy vale shook 4 
 in all directions so that I thought the universe was 
 moved by love ; and at that moment, this old preci- 
 pice here, and elsewhere, fell down. But look 
 
 'The souls of upright heathen, and the great of the Old 
 Testament, whom Christ took out of Hell. 
 
 * The earthquake described by St. Matthew, xxvii, 51, as 
 having taken place at the time of the Crucifixion. 
 
 This story, in all its circumstantial details, as related by
 
 DANTE 85 
 
 steadfastly below. The river of blood is near. In 
 it boils every one who by violence injures others." 
 Oh! blind greed, both criminal and crazy, which 
 goads us so viciously in the short life, and then 
 in the eternal overwhelms us so terribly ! 
 
 Dante now sees the river of boiling blood, and 
 Centaurs, armed with bows and arrows, coursing 
 along its banks. 
 
 Round and round the river's margin they go 
 shooting any soul that lifts itself out of the blood 
 more than for its crime is permitted. 
 
 They come, finally, close up to the Centaurs. The 
 
 Virgil, is one of the characteristic ways by which Dante again 
 and again gives a sense of overwhelming reality to his writ- 
 ing. It is the sort of touch which convinces the reader by 
 making him, as it were, feel perfectly at home. It is the most 
 natural and common thing in the world for one who is act- 
 ing as guide in a place long familiar to himself, but new to 
 another, to say, "It was thus and so when I first came here." 
 And this is precisely what Virgil does. These lines, like so 
 many in The Comedy, are glorious illustrations of what George 
 Meredith says about the art of writing; words which he 
 puts into the mouth of Diana of the Crossways. "The art of 
 the pen (we write on darkness) is to rouse the inward vision, 
 instead of laboring with a drop-scene brush, as if it were to 
 the eye; because our flying minds can not contain a protracted 
 description. That is why the poets who spring imagination 
 with a word or a phrase paint lasting pictures. The Shake- 
 sperian, the Dantesque, are in a line, two at most." This is 
 true over and over, twice in this very canto, of the way in 
 which Dante never lets the reader the reader is both listener 
 and onlooker, as at a play forget that he, Dante, is flesh and 
 blood, and the others, shades. "He moves what he touches," 
 cries Chiron. "The stones often moved under my feet," says 
 Dante.
 
 86 DANTE 
 
 great Chiron, who raised Achilles, takes an arrow, 
 and with the notched end pushes aside his beard. 5 
 His mouth uncovered, he says to his companions: 
 
 "Do you see how the one behind moves what he 
 touches? That is not the way with the feet of the 
 dead." 
 
 VIRGIL 
 
 "He is indeed alive, and thus, all solitary, it is 
 my duty to guide him through the dark abyss. Ne- 
 cessity takes him; not pleasure. He is no thief, nor 
 am I a fraudulent soul. By that divine Power which 
 directs my steps along so wild a road, I pray you 
 assign us one of your companions, to whom we may 
 keep close; one who will show us the ford, and 
 will carry this one over on his back. He is no 
 shade that can go through the air." 
 
 6 In a remarkable passage on realism in art, Ruskin makes 
 wonderful use of Chiron from this scene. He is arguing for 
 the doctrine that all great art represents something that it 
 sees or believes in : nothing unseen or uncredited. Modern 
 Painters, III. 
 
 "And just because it is always something that it sees or 
 believes there is the peculiar character above noted, almost 
 unmistakable, in all high and true ideals of having been as it 
 were studied from life, and involving pieces of sudden famil- 
 iarity, and close specific painting which never would have 
 been admitted or even thought of, had not the painter drawn 
 either from the bodily life or from the life of faith. For 
 instance, Dante's Centaur, Chiron, dividing his beard with 
 his arrow before he can speak, is a thing that no mortal would 
 ever have thought of, if he had not actually seen the Centaur 
 do it. They might have composed handsome bodies of men and 
 horses in all possible ways through a whole life of pseudo-
 
 DANTE 87, 
 
 Chiron immediately appoints one of his compan- 
 ion Centaurs to be their guide and they start out 
 along the edge of the blood-red boiling, in which 
 the scalded were shrieking. 
 
 I saw some who were in up to their brows. 
 
 THE CENTAUR 
 
 "These were tyrants who verily dealt in blood and 
 plunder." 
 
 As they proceed the depth of the boiling blood les- 
 sens: 
 
 until it cooked only the feet, and here was the ford. 
 
 CANTO XIII 
 
 The seventh circle, second ring. The place in 
 which all those who have done violence to them- 
 selves are punished. 
 
 CANTOS XIV, XV, XVI, XVII 
 
 The scene in these four cantos is laid in the 
 seventh circle. The sin punished throughout this 
 circle is that of doing or showing violence against 
 
 idealism, and yet never dreamed of any such thing. But the 
 real living Centaur actually trotted across Dante's brain, and 
 he saw him do it"
 
 88 DANTE 
 
 God. It is of three kinds; violence to God, blas- 
 phemy; violence to nature, sodomy; violence to 
 possessions, usury. 
 
 CANTO XIV 
 
 ^To make the new conditions perfectly under- 
 standable I say that we had now come to a desert 
 where no plant could grow. The gloomy wood 
 encircles it, and it in turn is circled by the river of 
 blood. At the very edge we stopped. How greatly 
 must the wrath of God be feared by all who read 
 of what was here made manifest to my eyes. 
 
 I saw many a company of naked shades, every one 
 weeping pitifully. Different chastisements appeared 
 to be laid on them. Some were flat upon the sand ; 
 some sat all hunched over; others hurried to and 
 fro without pause. The greater number were the 
 restless ones ; the lesser, those who were lying down 
 under their punishment, but the shrieks of the latter 
 were sharper. 
 
 Over all the sand, falling quietly, there rained 
 down great flakes of fire like snow on mountains 
 when there is no wind. The dance of the wretched 
 hands never stopped, now from one spot now from 
 another, flicking off new fallen flames. 
 
 1 Dante notices a shade 1 that does not seem to heed
 
 DANTE 89 
 
 the fiery rain, and he inquires about him of Virgil. 
 The shade answers for himself. 
 
 "What I 1 was alive that am I dead. Though 
 Jove wear out the smith from whom in mighty an- 
 ger he took the heavy thunderbolt with which he 
 dealt me the final blow; though he wear out the 
 lothers, one by one, at the black forge in Mongibello 2 
 'crying 'help, Vulcan, help !' as he did in the Phlegra 
 fight, and hurl down upon me with all his strength, 
 he shall not humble me." 
 
 VIRGIL 
 
 "O Capaneus, because your proud spirit is not 
 subdued your punishments are the heavier. No tor- 
 ment save your own rage can furnish pain meet for 
 such savage anger." 
 
 Then with gentler look turning to me, he said : 
 
 "He was one of the seven Kings who laid seige 
 to Thebes. He held God in disdain, and seems to, 
 still. But as I said to him just now his own pride 
 is a very proper decoration for his proud breast. 
 Now follow me and take care not to set foot on the 
 parched sand." 
 
 Without more words we came to the place where 
 
 ^This is Cnpancus, who defied Jove, and for doing so was 
 slain with a thunderbolt. 
 "The medieval and modern name of Mt. Etna.
 
 90 DANTE 
 
 a little brook gushes out from the wood. The 
 thought of its red color 3 even yet makes me shudder. 
 
 CANTO XV 
 
 Third ring of the seventh circle. Sodomites on 
 whom, as of old, "The Lord rained brimstone and 
 fire." 
 
 We were by this time so far from the wood that 
 it was lost to sight. We were met by a company 
 of shades moving close to the bank. 
 
 Dante and Virgil are walking on the edge of a 
 terrace as it were, and the shades just below them 
 on the next step. 
 
 Each was peering at us as men do at one another 
 in the faint light of a young moon. They con- 
 
 8 A characteristic touch of Dante's power of vivid realism is 
 displayed in his reference to the bloody redness of the brook, 
 memory of which "even yet makes me shudder." It is a 
 method that works, as employed by Dante, with unfailing 
 success. See Inferno, Canto XXXII, where in the frozen 
 regions he saw "a thousand faces made brutish by the cold," 
 and says, "for this reason I shudder, and shall always, at the 
 sight of frozen pools." It is realism even greater than that 
 of the passage in Canto XII, describing Chiron parting his 
 beard; the supreme sort of realism to which transcendent art 
 alone attains ; the sort that for the time being recreates the 
 reader, and makes him absolutely of one mind and heart with 
 the writer; in other words, of understanding and emotion 
 identical with that of the author.
 
 DANTE 91 
 
 tracted their brows toward us as an old tailor his 
 upon the needle's eye. 
 
 Thus scanned I was recognized by one who seized 
 hold of the hem of my garment, exclaiming: 
 
 SHADE 
 
 "What a miracle !" 
 
 When he stretched out his arm to me, I fixed my 
 eyes on his burnt visage so that even his scorched 
 features did not prevent recognition. Bending my 
 own face down to the level of his, I said : 
 
 "Are you here, Ser Brunette ?" 
 
 BRUNETTO LATINI 1 
 
 "O my son, let it not annoy you if Brunetto Latini 
 turns back a little with you, while the troop goes 
 on." 
 
 1 This is Brunetto Latini. He was one of the most learned 
 and able Florentines of the thirteenth century, and a man for 
 whom Dante had profound admiration ; admiration which 
 amounted to true and lasting affection. While Dante laments 
 the fact that Brunetto is no longer among the living, and 
 openly declares that no small part of his own fame, as a poet, 
 is due to Brunetto's teaching and example, and that Brunette's 
 image is fixed in his mind and heart, he none the less places 
 him in Hell. It is a notable instance of Dante's sense of jus- 
 tice, and regard for what he believed to be right. No matter 
 how dear personally, or how great intellectually, Brunetto 
 Latini was, or appeared to be to Dante, the poet does not hesi- 
 tate when it comes to assigning him his due place in the moral 
 scheme of the universe, for in doing so Dante feels himself to 
 be representing the justice of Almighty God which must 
 punish vice though it were the act o-f a man of the most com-
 
 92 DANTE 
 
 DANTE 
 
 "With all my soul I beseech you do so, or if you 
 wish me to sit down with you I will do that, pro- 
 vided it pleases him with whom I am going." 
 
 BRUNETTO LATINI 
 
 "Ah ! my son, whoever of this troop halts for a 
 moment must thereafter lie a hundred years with- 
 out moving his hands to brush away the falling 
 flames when they strike him; therefore continue to 
 go forward. I will follow at your skirts, and later 
 I will rejoin my companions who go wailing their 
 everlasting punishment." 
 
 I dared not go down to his level but I kept my 
 head bowed like one who is reverent. 
 
 manding intellect, and lofty powers, not to mention the fact 
 of his being the friend of any particular person. Greater 
 fairness, and more profound respect for natural law is not 
 set forth in any of the stories of men, than in this pathetic 
 account of the meeting of Brunetto and Dante. It is the 
 compound of a seven-times refined mortal friendship with 
 respect for divine justice. It ennobles mankind, and glorifies 
 God, and proves that the former, at its best, is one with the 
 latter. In the truest sense does this fifteenth canto of Hell 
 give us the portrait of Dante, a portrait in the sense meant by 
 Samuel Butler when he says: "A great portrait is always 
 more a portrait of the painter than the painted. When we 
 look at a portrait of Holbein or Rembrandt it is of Holbein 
 or Rembrandt that we think more than of the subject of their 
 picture. Even a portrait of Shakespeare by Holbein or Rem- 
 brandt could tell us very little about Shakespeare. It would, 
 however, tell us a great deal about Holbein or Rembrandt."^ 
 
 In precisely this way does Dante give us his own portrait, 
 tell us a great deal about Dante, when he is doing his best, 
 and a wonderful best it is, to tell us about Brunetto Latini.
 
 DANTE 93 
 
 BRUNETTO LATINI 
 
 "What destiny brings you here before your end? 
 And who is he that shows you the way ?" 
 
 DANTE 
 
 "Above, in that life on which the sun shines, be- 
 fore my days had all been told, I lost my way in a 
 dark wood. Only yesterday morning did I turn 
 my back upon it. This one of whom you ask came 
 to me at the moment when I was returning to that 
 wood, and he is now leading me homeward along 
 this path." 
 
 BRUNETTO LATINI 
 
 "And you fulfil the promise of your birth you 
 can not fail to make the glorious port, at least if I 
 discerned rightly while I was among the living. 
 Had my death not been so untimely, seeing Heaven 
 so well disposed toward you, I would have given you 
 encouragement in your work." 
 
 DANTE 
 
 "Had I my wish, you would not yet be banished 
 from human nature; for in my mind is fixed, and 
 this moment fills my heart, the dear, good, fatherly 
 image of you, as when in the world you taught me 
 hour by hour how man wins immortality. It be-
 
 94 DANTE 
 
 hooves that while I live my tongue shall declare the 
 depth of my gratitude to you." 
 
 CANTO XVI 
 
 In this canto the story of those who have done 
 violence to nature is continued, 
 
 CANTO XVII 
 
 Still the third ring of the seventh circle. Those 
 are here who have done violence to Art in the 
 sense of causing money to beget money; abuse of 
 possessions in the sense of usury. While Virgil 
 makes arrangements for the descent into the eighth 
 circle, Dante visits the shades of the usurers who 
 are, like the other shades of the seventh circle, suf- 
 fering under the fiery rain. The burning sand ends 
 with this ring, the edge of which is walled with 
 stone. This wall drops sheer, and very deep, to the 
 eighth circle, the first of the two last, or bottom- 
 most circles of Hell, where the various sins result- 
 ing from fraud are punished. The canto opens 
 with an account of the beast Geryon, Dante's sym- 
 bol of fraud, and closes with a description of 
 the descent to the eighth circle on Geryon's 
 shoulders. Nowhere does Dante so absolutely join 
 the real and the impossible, the strange and the 
 usual, what never was and what is of every day, as in 
 this canto. Furthermore, the long annals of art
 
 DANTE 95 
 
 offer few passages equal, and none superior, in re- 
 spect to a poet's necessarily twofold power of rea- 
 son and imagination. If Dante himself did not tell 
 us at the beginning of Paradise that both peaks of 
 Parnassus must yield him inspiration for accom- 
 plishing his last labor, it would be hard to believe 
 he had not had recourse to both peaks when he 
 wrote the seventeenth canto of his Hell. But he 
 says that for all parts, short of the Paradise, the 
 aid of one peak of the Muses' mountain was 
 enough. The ineffable gentleness and sweetness 
 essential to the Paradise have of course no place in 
 Hell, but all qualities of reason and imagination, 
 other than these, are requisite to describing Hell, 
 and nowhere are they altogether, or more powerfully 
 represented, than in the story of the descent to the 
 regions of fraud. 
 
 The preceding canto closes as follows, with an 
 account of Virgil's asking Dante for the cord which 
 he wore bound around his waist. 
 
 I handed it to him gathered up and coiled. Taking 
 it he turned to the right and threw it far out from 
 the edge, down into the deep gulf. 
 
 VIRGIL 
 
 "What I wait for will soon come up." 
 A man should always, so far as possible, avoid 
 telling what will sound false, because, though not
 
 96 DANTE 
 
 untruthful, he may have the appearance of lying. 
 But in the present case I can not keep silence. 
 
 By the words of this Comedy I swear to you, 
 Reader may they not be doomed to brief pop- 
 ularity that I saw swim up through the dense, 
 dark air, a creature that would shake every stead- 
 fast heart. It rose as a man who has gone down 
 to loosen an anchor caught on a rock, or other hid- 
 den thing in the sea, lifting itself by bounding, up- 
 ward motions, and drawing its feet after. 
 
 The seventeenth canto now opens in continua- 
 tion of the description of this creature, 
 
 VIRGIL 
 
 "Behold the savage beast with the pointed tail 
 that can remove mountains, and break walls and 
 weapons ; behold him that cankers the whole world." 
 
 Thereupon Virgil signaled to him to come to the 
 margin, whereat the loathsome image of fraud drew 
 nearer and rested his head and body, but did not 
 draw up his tail. His face was the face of a just 
 man, so benevolent was its aspect. The rest of him 
 was serpent. He had hairy arms, and talons in 
 place of hands. His back, and his chest, and both 
 his sides were patterned over with knots and rings. 
 Tartars or Turks never wove fabrics with more 
 colors of ground-work and pattern, nor did Arachne 
 \iy such webs upon the loom. In such wise rested
 
 DANTE 97 
 
 that evilest of beasts on the edge of the retaining 
 wall. His whole tail quivered in the void, twisting 
 upward its venomous fork, which, like a scorpion's, 
 armed the tip. 
 
 VIRGIL 
 
 "Our course must now lie toward the place where 
 that vicious beast is couching." 
 
 Therefore we turned down to the right, and took 
 ten steps along the margin, in order to escape the 
 hot sand and falling fire. And when we had come 
 to him, I saw, a short way beyond, people seated on 
 the sand close to the void. 
 
 VIRGIL 
 
 "In order that you may carry away complete ex- 
 perience of this ring, go now and examine their con- 
 dition. Let your words be brief. While you are 
 gone I will speak with the beast and induce it to 
 lend us its strong shoulders." 
 
 Alone, I went to the place where the unhappy ones 
 were sitting. Their misery was bursting out at 
 their eyes. Now to one place, now to another, 
 they moved their hands for relief, sometimes from 
 the flames, sometimes from the hot sand. They 
 acted like dogs in summer, now with muzzle, now 
 with paws, when they are bitten by fleas, or flies, or 
 gad-flies. I fixed my eyes on some in particular on 
 whom the grievous fire was falling, but I could rec-
 
 98 DANTE 
 
 ognize none. 1 I saw that a money-bag hung about 
 the neck of each. The bags were of certain colors 
 and bore certain devices, and on these their eyes fed. 
 
 After Dante has made out who some of the 
 shades were, by the coats of arms blazoned on 
 their money-bags, and has had brief conversation 
 with them, he returns to Virgil, whom he finds al- 
 ready mounted on Geryon's back. 
 
 VIRGIL 
 
 "Be strong, and of good courage. From now on 
 the going down is by such stairs. 2 Get up in front, 
 for I wish to be between, so that the tail can not 
 sting you." 
 
 I seated myself on the huge shoulders. I tried to 
 say "hold me tight," but my voice would not come 
 as I expected. He who at other times, and in other 
 dangers, had helped me, so soon as I was mounted, 
 embraced and supported me with his arms. 
 
 VIRGIL 
 
 "On, Geryon! Let your circlings be wide and 
 your descending slow. Remember your unusual 
 burden." 
 
 1 It is here with the usurers, as it was with the avaricious, 
 Hell VII, moral blindness to the right use of wealth has de- 
 stroyed their personality and made them all alike by taking 
 away every vestige of individuality. 
 
 *No longer on foot, or by boat, but on the backs of the 
 creatures of Hell.
 
 DANTE 99 
 
 As a little vessel slips from the beach, backward, 
 backward, so he drew off. When he felt himself to 
 be entirely free, he swung his tail round to the place 
 where his chest had been, stretching it out like an 
 eel, and paddled in mid-air with his claws. Greater 
 fear I do not believe there was when Phaeton for- 
 sook the reins, than mine when I saw that I was in 
 mid-air, and that everything was lost to sight save 
 the beast. He swam onward, slowly, slowly, circling 
 and descending, but I was unconscious of the motion 
 except as I felt the wind on my face and from below. 
 
 The sound of falling water and of fearful wail- 
 ing, together with the sight of fires, fills Dante with 
 terror. At last : 
 
 Geryon set us at the bottom; close to the very 
 foot of the precipice, and, rid of us, vanished as 
 arrow from bow-string. 
 
 CANTOS XVIII TO XXX INCLUSIVE 
 
 The thirteen succeeding cantos, beginning with 
 the eighteenth, together make up the eighth circle 
 of Hell. This entire circle is given over to the 
 punishment of the souls of men who practised fraud. 
 But fraud Dante thought of as divided into two 
 distinct varieties. He says in Hell, Canto XI, 
 "fraud, man may practise on one who puts trust in
 
 100 DANTE 
 
 him, or on one that has no reason to put confidence 
 in him." He goes on to say that the latter sort of 
 fraud violates only the common bond of natural 
 kindliness among men, but that the former violates 
 the confidence which has been bred of intimate re- 
 lations between man and man. The difference 
 turns upon the distinction which all men feel be- 
 tween the man who succeeds in cheating a casual 
 business acquaintance, and the man who cheats his 
 friend because his friend believes in him so en- 
 tirely that he does not feel any need to take precau- 
 tions. The former variety of fraud is punished in 
 the eighth circle ; the latter in the ninth, i. e., lower 
 down, because worse. 
 
 The entire eighth circle is called Malebolge, 
 which means "Evil-pits" ; hollows in which the evil 
 spirits are prisoned and punished. This eighth 
 circle, Malebolge, is a truncated cone-shaped de- 
 pression. In other words, the land slopes inward 
 and downward from the encircling base of the preci- 
 pice at the foot of which Geryon has just landed 
 Dante, to a lower circular opening, the throat really 
 of the deepest part of Hell. This slope is cut up by 
 ten concentric valleys or ravines, bolge, divided from 
 one another by walls of rock. One of these circular 
 ravines lies below another in descending order and 
 the walls between them are connected by arched 
 bridges of rock. Virgil leads Dante across the 
 bridges from one wall to the next. Thus they de-
 
 DANTE 101 
 
 scend through Malebolge seeing and conversing with 
 some of the shades in each of the ten pits. 
 
 CANTO XVIII 
 
 The first and second valleys of Malebolge. In 
 the first valley are procurers and seducers: in the 
 second, flatterers. 
 
 Along the dismal rock on this side and on that, 
 I saw horned demons with great whips striking the 
 shades cruelly from behind. Ah, how the first lash 
 made them run! None waited for a second cut. 
 From the old bridge we gazed at a troop which was 
 approaching. 
 
 VIRGIL 
 
 "Look at that great one who is coming and sheds 
 not a tear for all his pain. He is Jason who, 
 through courage and through cunning, bore the 
 golden fleece away from Colchis. He cruised round 
 the island of Lemnos after the brave and heartless 
 women had killed all the men. It was there that he, 
 with his wooing and his skilful arguments, deceived 
 the maiden Hypsipyle, 1 who, before, had herself 
 deceived all the others. It was there he left her, 
 big with child, and forsaken. Such sin brings him 
 to such punishment. And for treating Medea in the 
 
 1 Hypsipyle by a deceit managed to save her father in spite 
 of her agreement to join in killing all the men.
 
 102 DANTE 
 
 same way is this vengeance wreaked on him. With 
 him go all who practise to deceive in like fashion." 
 
 Looking down into the second valley Dante saw 
 a shade plunged in filth and so befouled that it was 
 not possible to discover whether he was a layman 
 or a priest. 
 
 SHADE 
 
 "Why are you more keen to stare at me than at 
 all the other filthy ones?" 
 
 DANTE 
 
 "Because, if my memory is not playing me a 
 trick, I have ere now seen you with dry hair, and 
 you are Alessio Interminei of Lucca. 2 That is why 
 I stare more at you than all others." 
 
 ALESSIO 
 
 "Down here the flatteries with which my tongue 
 was never cloyed have submerged me." 
 
 CANTO XIX 
 
 The third valley of Malebolge. Simonists ; those 
 who buy and sell the things of God for money. 
 Here Dante sees the stone floor of the valley full of 
 holes and out of each, up to the calf, a pair of legs 
 
 * The only fact known of him is that he was a flatterer.
 
 DANTE 103 
 
 protruding; the soles of the feet covered with 
 flames. 
 
 DANTE 
 
 "Who is he, master, who seems to suffer more 
 than his companions, and whom a hotter flame 
 licks?" 
 
 VIRGIL 
 
 "If you are willing to have me carry you down 
 there, you shall learn from him about his wrongs." 
 
 DANTE 
 
 "Whatever pleases you is to my liking. You are 
 Lord, and you know that my will is your will, and 
 you understand me although I say not a word." 
 
 Virgil carries Dante down. 
 DANTE 
 
 "O miserable soul, whoever you may be that stays 
 upside down, planted like a stake, speak to me if 
 you can." 
 
 SHADE 
 
 "Are you already here, Boniface? Are you so 
 soon sated wifh that for the sake of which you did
 
 104 DANTE 
 
 not fear to seize by treachery the beautitful Lady 1 
 and then to do her outrage ?" 
 
 I was like those who, because they do not compre- 
 hend an answer, stand as if mocked, not knowing 
 what to reply. 
 
 VIRGIL 
 
 "Tell him quickly, 'I am not he, I am not he whom 
 you think.' " 
 
 I did as I was directed. 
 
 SHADE 
 
 "What is it, then, that you want of me? If to 
 learn who I am concerned you so much that it 
 brought you down here, know that I wore the Great 
 Mantle. It is true I was a son of the She-Bear, 2 
 so eager to advance the cubs, that up in the world 
 I put riches, and down here myself, into the sack. 8 
 Beneath me are the others who practised simony 
 before me, pushed down, flattened through the 
 cracks of the rock. There below, in my turn, I 
 shall sink down when he for whom I mistook you, 
 comes." 
 
 ( *The Church, Bride of Christ, which Pope Boniface VIII 
 'got by a trick played on Celestine V, in order to win the 
 Papacy for himself. 
 
 * She-Bear, the emblem on the arms of the Orsini family, 
 of which family Pope Nicholas III was a member. It is the 
 shade of Nicholas III who is talking. 
 
 * He put money, got by simony, into his purse and as a re- 
 sult got himself put into the valley, pouch, purse, Malebolge.
 
 DANTE 105 
 
 DANTE 
 
 "Tell me, pray, how much money did our Lord 
 insist on having from St. Peter before He would 
 trust the keys to him? Surely he asked nothing 
 save, 'Follow thou me.' 4 Neither did Peter or the 
 others receive gold or silver from Matthias when he 
 was chosen by lot for the place left empty by the 
 guilty one. 6 And were it not for reverence of those 
 supreme keys which you held on Earth, I would use 
 yet harder words because your 6 avarice afflicts the 
 world, trampling down the good and exalting the 
 bad. You shepherds the Evangelist had in mind 
 when he beheld her that sitteth on the waters for- 
 nicating with kings. You have made you a god of 
 gold and silver. And what difference is there be- 
 tween you and the idolaters save that they adore 
 one, and you a hundred? Ah, Constantine! of how 
 much ill was mother, not your conversion, but the 
 gift which the first rich Father received from you." 7 
 
 4 Matthew xvi :19. John xxi :19-22. 
 
 B Acts i: 15-26. 
 
 'The plural, "your," means the pastors of the Church gen- 
 erally. 
 
 'The donation by the Emperor Constantine of the States 
 of the Church, and of the entire temporal power of the West, 
 to Pope Sylvester I. This "donation," or gift, now known to 
 h.we been a forgery, was believed in by all, formerly.
 
 106 DANTE 
 
 CANTO XX 
 
 Fourth valley. In it suffer all those who in life 
 had been fortune-tellers, diviners and magicians. 
 
 CANTOS XXI AND XXII 
 
 Fifth valley. Here are punished the malicious 
 stirrers-up of discord. 
 
 CANTO xxin 
 Sixth valley. Hypocrites. 
 
 There below we discovered a painted people, who, 
 in tears, were moving with extremely slow steps, 
 and in look were weary and depressed. They wore 
 cloaks with hoods lowered before their eyes, fash- 
 ioned after those worn by the monks of Cluny. 
 Outwardly they are gilded and glisten, but within 
 they are lead, and so heavy that those which Fred- 
 erick used to have put on were of straw by com- 
 parison. 1 O mantle of eternal weariness ! 
 
 Because of -this weight, those weary shades were 
 proceeding so slowly that at every step we had new 
 companions. 
 
 1 Frederick used to put lead coverings, or cloaks, on crim- 
 inals who were to be burned to death.
 
 DANTE 107 
 
 DANTE 
 
 "Contrive to find some one who may be known 
 by deed or name, and as we go along cast your eyes 
 around." 
 
 One who recognized the Tuscan dialect, 2 called 
 out behind us : 
 
 "Wait, you who are making your way so rap- 
 idly through the dark air. Maybe you can learn 
 what you want to know from me." 
 
 VIRGIL 
 
 "Stop a moment, and then make his pace yours." 
 
 I stopped and saw two who, by their expression, 
 showed great haste of mind to be with me, but their 
 load and the crowded way held them back. 
 
 When they had come up, with sidelong glance, 
 they stared at me some time without saying a word ; 
 then turned to each other. 
 
 SHADE 
 
 "By the movement of his throat when he speaks 
 I take him to be alive, but if he belongs among the 
 dead, by what right does he go without the heavy 
 robe?" 
 
 1 He recognized the peculiar dialect or speech of Florence, 
 namely Tuscan.
 
 108 DANTE 
 
 Then he said, turning to me : 
 
 "O Tuscan, who to the assembly of the wretched 
 hypocrites has come, be not too proud to tell us who 
 you are." 
 
 DANTE 
 
 "I was born and raised by the fair river Arno, at 
 the great town, and I have the flesh that I have .al- 
 ways had. But who are you in whom such misery 
 distils, as I see upon your cheeks? What is this 
 punishment that so glitters on you?" 
 
 SHADE 
 
 "The golden cloaks are of lead so thick that their 
 weight makes our shoulders creak. Jolly 3 Friars 
 were we, and our town was Bologna ; I called C" ta- 
 lano; he Loderingo. Together, we were chosen by 
 your city, as one man alone is usually chosen for 
 guardian of the peace." 4 
 
 DANTE 
 
 "O Friars, your misdeeds" 
 
 But further I did not go for my eye caught sight 
 
 'Jolly because of their free and easy ways of life. 
 
 * Being of opposing political parties, and outsiders, they 
 were invited to Florence and elected to hold, and administer 
 cojointly, the office of chief magistrate, the idea being to get 
 a fair government. The outcome was a miserable failure, for 
 Catalano and Loderingo soon lost the public confidence be- 
 cause of their hypocrisy and peculations.
 
 DANTE 109 
 
 of one crucified upon the ground. When he saw 
 me he writhed all over, breathing sighs into his 
 beard. 
 
 CATALANO 
 
 "That transfixed creature on whom you are look- 
 ing counseled the Pharisees that it was expedient to 
 put one man to torture for the people. 5 Naked and 
 across the path, as you see, he must feel how much 
 each one weighs who passes. And in the same 
 manner his father-in-law 6 is stretched out in this 
 valley, along with the others of that Council which, 
 for the Jews, was the beginning of trouble." 
 
 Then I saw Virgil puzzled and astonished 7 over 
 him who lay crucified so shamefully in this place of 
 eternal exile. 
 
 CANTOS xxiv AND xxv 
 
 Seventh valley. The ascent from the sixth valley, 
 or bolge, to the top of the division wall between 
 
 f Caiaphas, who said : "It is expedient for us, that one man 
 should die for the people." John xi :50. 
 
 'Annas. "Now Annas had sent him bound unto Caiaphas 
 the high priest." John xviii :24. 
 
 f Virgil was of course unaware of the story of Christ's 
 Crucifixion. Dante's representing him as utterly baffled by the 
 sight and story of these crucified hypocrites, is a character- 
 istic touch of genius. It compels our acceptance of the narra- 
 tive for truth, and it calls to, and fills the mind with, thoughts 
 of an hypocrisy which has played a tremendous role in the 
 world's history for nearly two thousand years and in doing so 
 gives the weight of authority and importance to the entire 
 scene.
 
 110 DANTE 
 
 it and the seventh, is very difficult, the bridge being 
 down. Dante is alarmed, for he sees at a glance 
 that his guide is worried, but soon his courage is 
 restored by Virgil's hopeful expression, and the 
 fact that he actually takes him in his arms and 
 carries him up the precipice. The canto opens 
 with a long simile based on Dante's fear, followed 
 by the renewal of hope and faith. The thought 
 of a sweet, calm, rural scene, and the atmosphere 
 of serenity which the simile here introduces is 
 in itself a marvel, few word landscapes are its 
 equal while the quiet and peace of it, offer a 
 moment of welcome relief from the horrors that 
 precede and follow. In this moment the mind is 
 prepared, as it were, by the very beauty of the pic- 
 ture, and the contrast with what follows it, for ap- 
 preciating the still greater horrors to come. For 
 sheer economy of effort with a maximum of effect, 
 in piling anguish and terror mountain high, and a 
 consummate knowledge of the value of contrast, as 
 well as gradation, the last ten cantos of Hell are un- 
 surpassed. 
 
 The simile of the fireflies, Hell, Canto XXVI, and 
 the entrancing description of the brooks of the Cas- 
 entino, Hell, Canto XXX, belong in the same class, 
 and serve the same purpose, the Casentino more 
 even than the others. 
 
 In that part of the new year when the sun's rays
 
 DANTE 111 
 
 grow warm, and he enters Aquarius, 1 and the nights 
 are shortening toward the south, 2 when upon the 
 Earth the hoar-frost makes a likeness of her white 
 sister, though the work of her pen is short lived, the 
 peasant whose supplies fail, goes out and looks 
 about and sees the fields all white, whereat he strikes 
 his thigh in despair and returns indoors again, 
 grumbling the while, like a poor fellow who knows 
 not what to do ; then once more goes out and picks 
 up hope, seeing the world to have changed look in a 
 short time, and takes his crook and drives his sheep 
 to pasture. 
 
 In the twenty-fifth canto there occurs an ex- 
 traordinary passage based on a portion of Ovid's 
 Metamorphoses, not a copy of it; an instance of 
 Dante's power to make a thing which utterly 
 surpasses human experience and transcends be- 
 lief, appear credible. The most commonplace and 
 familiar of every-day occurrences is knit up with the 
 miraculous, in such a manner as keeps both con- 
 stantly and vividly before the reader's mind, the 
 result produced being that rarest of all things, poetic 
 conviction. 
 
 Three shades suddenly make their presence known 
 to Dante and Virgil, by calling to them for their 
 names. While Dante is peering at them, one says : 
 
 *The eleventh sign of the Zodiac which the sun enters on 
 January 21st. 
 
 * Lengthening days, and nights growing shorter.
 
 112 DANTE 
 
 "Where can Cianfa 8 have strayed?" 
 
 Dante motions to Virgil to be attentive and then, 
 together, they behold the miracle begin, and watch 
 it to the end. The subject is one Agnello, a fraudu- 
 lent thief like Cianfa. 
 
 If, Reader, you are loath to believe what I am 
 about to tell, it will be no wonder, for I who saw it 
 scarcely believe it. While I looked at the three 
 shades, a serpent with six feet darted in front of 
 one of them and laid hold all over him. With its 
 middle feet it hugged his belly; with its forefeet it 
 laid hold on his arms, then stuck its teeth in both his 
 cheeks. Its hind legs it spread out upon his thighs, 
 and put its tail between, and stretched it up behind. 
 Ivy never clung so tight upon a tree as the horrible 
 beast wound its own about the other's limbs. Then 
 they melted together as if they had been hot wax, 
 and mingled their color, and now neither seemed the 
 same which it had been. It was as when fire con- 
 sumes paper, a dark color, not yet black, runs up the 
 sheet, and the white vanishes. Meantime the other 
 two shades were looking on and each cried: "O 
 me ! Agnel, 3 how you change ! You are neither two 
 nor one." Now the two heads became one, and 
 there appeared to be two countenances so mingled 
 
 'One whose reputation for being a fraudulent thief has 
 lasted, but of whom nothing is known.
 
 DANTE 113 
 
 in one face that both were lost. The two arms, and 
 the beasts' forefeet, thighs and legs, belly and chest, 
 became parts never seen before. Every original 
 look had vanished. Both, and neither, appeared the 
 perverted image, and such, with slow step it went 
 away. 
 
 As a lizard going from hedge to hedge in the 
 fierce heat of dog-days flashes, if it cross one's 
 path, such seemed a small fiery serpent, livid and 
 black as a pepper corn, coming toward the bellies 
 of the pair that were molten together. It pierced 
 the navel of one of them, then fell down stretched 
 out before him. The pierced one gazed at it, but 
 did not speak; nay with feet fixed, he began to 
 yawn, just as if sleep or fever had fallen on him. 
 He looked on the serpent and the serpent on him. 
 Each was smoking violently, one at the wound, the 
 other at the mouth, and the smoke mingled together. 
 After this let Lucan be silent, where he tells of the 
 miserable Sabellus and of Nasidius, 4 and let him 
 pause to hear that which is now about to be revealed. 
 Let Ovid be silent about Cadmus and Arethusa, for 
 if, in writing poetry, he changes him into a serpent, 
 and her into a fountain, I do not grudge it to him, 
 for never did he transmute creatures front to front, 
 so that the spiritual beings of both were prompt to 
 exchange their material substance. They responded 
 
 * Sabellus, bitten by a snake, melted away. Nasidius, bitten 
 by another, swelled up until he burst his armor.
 
 114 DANTE 
 
 to one another in such a fashion, that the serpent 
 divided his tail into a fork, and the wounded shade 
 drew his feet together so that they became one. The 
 legs and thighs stuck so . close together, that in 
 short time the place where they were joined showed 
 no mark. The cleft tail was taking on the shape 
 that the legs were losing. Its skin was becoming 
 soft, and theirs, hard. I beheld the arms drawn in 
 at the armpits, and the two feet of the beast grow 
 /long in proportion as the arms grew short. 
 
 While the smoke gives each a color other than his 
 own, and brings out hair in one part, and strips it 
 from another, the one rose up and the other fell 
 down, yet not for all this did they take their evil 
 eyes, beneath which each was changing, off each 
 other. He who was standing drew his muzzle up 
 toward his temples, and out of the excess of mate- 
 rial, ears appeared on the smooth cheeks. The ma- 
 terial which did not run back, but was kept, of its 
 overabundance formed a nose for the face and 
 thickened the lips as much as was needed. He that 
 .was lying down pushed his muzzle forward and 
 drew his ears backward into his head, as the snail 
 its horns. And his tongue which was whole, and 
 suited for speaking, split itself, and the cleft tongue 
 of the other closed up, and the smoke stopped. The 
 shade that had turned beast fled hissing along the 
 valley, and the other spluttered behind it. Then he 
 turned his back on him, and said to the third mem-
 
 DANTE 115 
 
 her of the group, "I want Buoso to run, as I have, 
 on his belly along this path." 
 
 Thus I saw the vile occupants of the seventh 
 valley change and transmute. And in this place let 
 the novelty of the subject be my excuse if my style 
 is a little overdetailed. 
 
 CANTOS XXVI AND XXVII 
 
 The eighth valley. Fraudulent counselors. The 
 twenty-sixth canto opens with a fiercely ironical 
 apostrophe to his native town. 
 
 Rejoice, O Florence, since you are so great that 
 your wings stretch o'er land and sea, and your name 
 is familiar throughout Hell ! 
 
 In this valley of Malebolge Dante sees lights, 
 forked flames or tongues of fire, each of which 
 wraps the shade of some one who gave counsel with 
 the intent to deceive. It is here that he makes use 
 of the fireflies 1 in so remarkable a figure, and then 
 heightens the color of his picture by a reference to 
 Elijah, a charming bit of nature, and a story for 
 ages stamped with sacred authority, both success- 
 fully used to attract the reader's attention and chain 
 it upon the strange punishment of the eighth valley. 
 
 1 See Cantos XXIV-XXV, prefatory note.
 
 116 DANTE 
 
 As numerous as the fireflies which, in the season 
 when the sun shines longest, the peasant, who at 
 twilight, when flies go and gnats come, is taking his 
 ease on the hillside, sees down in the valley, perhaps 
 where he gathers grapes and plows with flames 
 so numerous, the whole of the eighth pit was flash- 
 ing I perceived, as soon as I was where I could get 
 a view of the bottom. And as he 2 who was avenged 
 by the bears beheld the chariot of Elijah at its de- 
 parture, when the fiery horses 2 rose straight into 
 Heaven for he could not follow it so as to distin- 
 guish more than the flame which rose like a little 
 cloud so in like manner here, every flame was mov- 
 ing along this valley, for none shows what it con- 
 ceals, yet every one hides a sinner. 
 
 VIRGIL 
 
 "Within these flames are spirits. Each is wrapped 
 by that with which he is burnt." 
 
 DANTE 
 
 "Master, who is in that flame which now ap- 
 proaches and which is so divided at the tip that it 
 looks as if it rose from the pyre on which Eteocles 
 and his brother were laid?" 
 
 2 Elisha. 2 Kings ii :9-24.
 
 DANTE 117 
 
 VIRGIL 
 
 "Within that fire Ulysses and Diomed are tor- 
 mented, and thus they go together in punishment, 
 as of old in wrath." 
 
 Dante expresses a strong desire to hear these spir- 
 its of the fire speak, and Virgil immediately ap- 
 proves, saying that it will be best, however, for him 
 to make the request, "for, because they were Greeks 
 they would pay no heed to your words," meaning 
 perhaps that they would not understand Italian. 
 
 VIRGIL 
 
 "O you, who are two within a single flame, if 
 I deserved of you while I lived, if I deserved of 
 you much or little, when in the world I wrote my 
 noble verses, move not, but let one of you tell where, 
 after losing his course, he went to meet death." 
 
 ULYSSES 
 
 "When I left Circe, who had kept me more than 
 a year near Gaeta, before yEneas named it, neither 
 affection for my son, nor piety towards my aged 
 father, nor the proper love which should have been 
 the delight of Penelope, could outweigh my zeal for 
 experience of the world, and of the vices of men,
 
 118 DANTE 
 
 and of their virtue. I put out upon the deep, open 
 sea, with one ship only, and with the few companions 
 who had not forsaken me. I saw one shore and the 
 other, as far as Spain, as far as Morocco ; the island 
 of Sardinia, and the other islands bathed by the sea. 
 I and my companions were old men and slow, when 
 we reached the narrow strait where Hercules set 
 up his bounds with the intention that man should 
 not sail beyond. On the right hand I left Seville. 
 I had already left Ceuta on the other. 'O brothers/ 
 I cried, 'you who through a hundred thousand dan- 
 gers have reached the West, to the brief remainder 
 of your life wish not to deny experience, following 
 the sun, of the world that has no inhabitants. Con- 
 sider your origin; you were not made to live like 
 brutes, but for the pursuit of virtue and wisdom.' 
 With this brief speech I made my comrades so eager 
 for the voyage that afterward I could hardly have 
 kept them back. Holding our stern to the East, 
 of our oars we made wings for the mad flight, 
 always steering southwestward. The night now 
 showed all the stars of the other pole, while ours 
 were so low that they rose not above the ocean floor. 
 Five times the moon had changed since we began 
 to voyage the deep, when a mountain loomed dark 
 in the distance, and it seemed to me higher than 
 ever I had seen one. We rejoiced, but soon our 
 gladness turned to lamentation, for, forth from the 
 strange land, a whirlwind swept, and struck our
 
 DANTE 119, 
 
 ship's bow. Three times it made her turn around, 
 and the fourth it made her stern lift up, and her 
 prow go down, as pleased Another, till the sea had 
 closed over us." 3 
 
 CANTO XXVIII 
 
 The ninth valley. In it are punished the sowers 
 of discord and schism. 
 
 CANTOS XXIX AND XXX ' 
 
 The tenth and last valley of Malebolge. 1 Falsi- 
 fiers of every sort of metals, the alchemists and 
 those who pretend to be who and what they 
 
 * This story which Dante puts into the mouth of Ulysses is 
 entirely unlike the story of Ulysses's peaceful end as given 
 in the Odyssey, xi. It is probably Dante's own invention. 
 Some Genoese voyages in search of a western continent were 
 made during the last decade of the thirteenth century, one in 
 1291, of which nothing was ever heard. This may have given 
 Dante the idea of sending Ulysses out beyond the Pillars of 
 Hercules into the unknown Atlantic. Ulysses' character is 
 shown in the traditional aspect as described in the ^Odyssey, 
 but the circumstances, one and all, are as original with Dante 
 as in themselves they are fascinating. It is not easily con- 
 ceivable that the thirst for knowledge and experience, for 
 its own sake, could be more completely described, or that a 
 more moving speech in behalf of such thirst could be made to 
 human beings keen already beyond ordinary. The story car- 
 ries with it the very breath of youth, the youth of all that 
 voyaging in search of a new world, not destined to become the 
 reality of finding for two centuries after Dante's time. It is 
 an inspired as well as a formulaic utterance concerning man's 
 willingness to make sacrifices for the sake of knowledge, and 
 his insatiate love of novelty. 
 
 1 Sec Prefatory note, Cantos XVIII to XXX inc., page 99.
 
 120 DANTE 
 
 are not, counterfeiters and perjurers. They are 
 punished with the most repulsive diseases, mental 
 and physical. 
 
 Such misery was here as there would be if, be- 
 tween July and September, the sick from all the hos- 
 pitals of Valdichiana, Maremma and Sardinia were 
 together in a single ditch. Such stench came up 
 thence as comes from rotting flesh. I do not believe 
 it was greater sorrow to see the whole people sick 
 in ^gina 2 when the air was so full of pestilence 
 that the animals, even the little worm, fell dead. 
 One lay on his own belly, and one on the shoulders 
 of another, and one on all fours shifted his place 
 along the dismal road. Step by step, without a 
 word, we went, looking at, and listening to these 
 sick ones who could not raise themselves. 
 
 One of the shades speaks to Dante, saying : 
 
 "Look sharp at me so that you may clearly dis- 
 cern my face and you will perceive that I am the 
 shade of Capocchio, 3 who by alchemy falsified the 
 metals, and you should recall, if my eyes serve me 
 aright, how good an ape of nature I was." 
 
 A shade utterly distorted by dropsy, the punish- 
 
 * Story told by Ovid of the whole population of JEgina 
 dying by. pestilence. 
 
 *It is supposed that Dante and Capoccio had been ac- 
 quainted in life.
 
 DANTE 121 
 
 ment given him for having made counterfeit money, 
 addresses Dante. At the beginning of his story he 
 makes use of the lovely figure 4 based on the brooks 
 of the Casentino, a peaceful, pastoral district in the 
 upper valley of the Arno. The shade that speaks 
 is Master Adam of Brescia, who was persuaded 
 to counterfeit the coin of Florence by Count Guido, 
 of Romena. The calm beauty of the figure with 
 which Master Adam begins his story serves to 
 heighten the sense of personal suffering almost be- 
 yond comprehension. It also furnishes a last touch 
 of relief before the final descent to the bottommost 
 circle of Hell where Dante is to find fratricides 
 and traitors in a motionless world of ice, and last 
 of all, Judas Iscariot, everlastingly consumed, his 
 parts reassembled and then reconsumed, by Lucifer 
 himself. If, as Leigh Hunt said, the Francesca epi- 
 sode is like a "lily in the mouth of Tartarus," the 
 Casentino picture is like a bit of the Vale of Tempe 
 in the abyss of Hades. If ever there was a perfect 
 instance of the appreciation of Wordsworth's doc- 
 trine, "From Nature doth emotion come, and moods 
 of Calmness equally are Nature's gift," it is to 
 be found in this passage, and in the use made 
 of the Casentino brooks. Again here, as in the 
 fifth canto of Hell, Dante takes the opportunity to 
 declare in a form of imperishable beauty the im- 
 perishable fact that the possible suffering of the 
 
 4 See Cantos XXIV-XXV. Prefatory note.
 
 122 DANTE 
 
 mind far outweighs the extremest possible suffer- 
 ing of the flesh; that there is no greater woe than 
 remembering in misery the happy time. 5 But, 
 as with pictures, more can be learned by looking at 
 them than by hearing or reading about them, so is it 
 with the works of a poet like Dante. The real 
 excuse for a comment on any of the things of 
 poetry is that it may lead others to prove its value 
 by examining into the things which gave rise to the 
 comment, and so learn to love it themselves. 
 
 MASTER ADAM 
 
 "O you, who are without punishment, and I know 
 not why, in this dark underworld, behold and con- 
 sider the misery of Master Adam. In life I had 
 enough of what I wished, and now I long for a 
 single drop of water. The little brooks that from 
 the green hills of the Casentin run down into the 
 Arno, keeping their courses cool and moist, stand 
 ever before me, and not without effect. The vision 
 of them parches me more than the disease because 
 of which I strip the flesh from my face. Inflexible 
 justice goads me. Romena was where I counter- 
 feited the coin stamped with the Baptist, 7 for which 
 on Earth I left my body burnt. But if I could see 
 
 6 Canto V. 
 
 * Romena, a village in the Casentino valley. 
 T The Baptist was patron saint of Florence and his figure 
 was on its coins.
 
 DANTE 123 
 
 the wretched soul of Guido or Alesandro 8 in this 
 place, I would not exchange the sight for Fonte 
 Branda. 9 One of them is already here, if the fu- 
 rious shades that can move about tell me the truth, 
 but how does that help me who am bound fast? 
 If I were only light enough to move a single inch 
 in a hundred years, already I should have started 
 out upon the road to seek him among these de- 
 formed people, in spite of the fact that the road 
 circles eleven miles around. 10 It is they who are the 
 cause of my being among such folk. They per- 
 suaded me to coin the florins which contained three 
 carats of base metal." 
 
 DANTE 
 
 "Who are those two poor wretches steaming like 
 wet hands in winter, lying huddled together on your 
 right hand?" 
 
 MASTER ADAM 
 
 "Here I found them when I was hurled down 
 into this chasm. They have not moved since, and 
 I do not believe that they will move to all eternity. 
 
 * The men who inveigled Master Adam into doing the coun- 
 terfeiting. 
 
 * A famous fountain in Siena. 
 
 "An interesting example of Dante's concreteness of state- 
 ment made to convince the reader of the reality of the place 
 which he is describing.
 
 124 DANTE 
 
 One is the false woman who accused Joseph. 11 The 
 other is that perjurous Sinon, 12 the Greek, from 
 Troy. Because of their high fever do they stink so." 
 
 And one of them who was perhaps annoyed by 
 being called hard names struck Master Adam in 
 the stomach. The sound was like a drum. There- 
 on Master Adam hit him a blow in the face which 
 seemed not softer, saying to him : 
 
 "Although I can not move because of my heavy 
 legs, yet have I an arm free for such need as this." 
 
 SINON 
 
 "When you were on your way to be burned you 
 had no free arm, though free enough when you were 
 at your counterfeiting." 
 
 MASTER ADAM 
 
 "Of this you speak truly, but you were not so 
 trustworthy a witness when questioned about the 
 facts at Troy." 
 
 SINON 
 
 i 
 
 "If I bore false testimony, you counterfeited, and 
 I am here for one sin, but you for more than any 
 other demon." 13 
 
 u Pptiphar's wife, Gen. xxxix, 7 et seq. 
 M Sinon, the treacherous Greek who got the wooden horse 
 into Troy. 
 u Each counterfeit coin is reckoned a sin.
 
 DANTE 125 
 
 MASTER ADAM 
 
 "Perjurer, remember the wooden horse, and sorry 
 for you is it that all the world remembers." 
 
 SINON 
 
 "And ill for you be the thirst that cracks your 
 tongue, and the foul water which lifts your belly like 
 a barrier before your eyes." 
 
 MASTER ADAM 
 
 "Your mouth opens to its own hurt, for if I have 
 thirst and the water of dropsy gorges me, you have 
 fever and headache; to lick the mirror of Narcissus 
 you would not need a second invitation." 
 
 I stood transfixed while listening to them. Virgil 
 said sharply: 
 
 "Take your fill of looking. Not much more were 
 needed to make me quarrel with you." 
 
 When I heard him speak to me in anger, I turned, 
 o'ercome with a shame that even yet lingers in my 
 memory. And as he who dreams of his own harm, 
 and dreaming, hopes that it is a dream, so that he 
 wishes for what really is, as if it were something
 
 126 DANTE 
 
 else, 14 such I became, powerless to speak, for I 
 wanted to excuse myself, and all the time was ex- 
 cusing myself, though it never occurred to me that 
 I was doing so. 
 
 VIRGIL 
 
 "Less shame would condone graver fault than 
 yours. Therefore lay aside all regret and remem- 
 ber that I am ever at your side, if you should again 
 happen to be where people are in a similar brawl; 
 for the wish to hear this sort of thing is a base 
 wish." 15 
 
 CANTO XXXI 
 
 The inner wall of Malebolge, where the circular 
 precipice of Hell falls away suddenly and deeply to 
 the ninth circle, technically speaking, the Pit of Hell. 
 
 "The "something else" would be the reality of waking. If 
 he were awake he would wish himself in a dream so that by 
 waking he might be rid of the fear of harm. It is one of the 
 many similes which Dante draws from mental experience. 
 
 16 Virgil's stern rebuke to Dante for allowing himself to be- 
 come engrossed in following a scandalous brawl is one of the 
 many ways, internal evidences, to make use of a common- 
 place of critical erudition, by which the reader of The Divine 
 Comedy may know with certainty what were its author's 
 ideals of behavior; in a word, what was Dante's notion of a 
 gentleman. Among other requirements, this he lays down, 
 not to heed backyard bickerings, low quarrels of vulgar or 
 dishonest persons, which, translated into modern phrase, 
 would mean not giving heed or time to yellow journalism, or 
 slander. It is true beyond doubt that there are few books 
 which really enable the reader to know the sort of man their 
 author was so completely as The Divine Comedy, for although, 
 in one sense, Dante always keeps himself in the background, 
 in another he is always in the foreground.
 
 DANTE 127 
 
 Here it was less than night and less than day, so 
 that my sight took in but little. I heard a mighty 
 horn reverberating. So loud was it that all thunder, 
 by comparison, would sound faint. 
 
 The precipice is guarded by giants who stand on 
 the floor of the Pit below and rise, from the waist 
 up, above the encircling ledge of Malebolge. At 
 first, in the twilight, Dante mistakes these giants for 
 towers, but later discovers their real nature ; he says 
 that as he 
 
 drew nearer and nearer to the brink, error left me 
 and fear grew upon me. It is certain that Nature 
 when she ceased to make such creatures did exceed- 
 ing well to take from Mars such soldiery, and, 
 though she does not repent of elephants and whales, 
 he who thinks carefully esteems her therefore only 
 more just and prudent. For where the power of 
 reason is added to evil disposition, and to strength, 
 the human race can make no defense against it. 
 
 One of the giants, Antaeus, known because of 
 his fight with Hercules, who slew him, took Virgil 
 and Dante in his arms, and, says Dante, at the close 
 of the canto: 
 
 gently in the depth that engulfs Lucifer with Judas 
 set us down.
 
 128 DANTE 
 
 Such was the wonderful manner of their descent 
 to the ninth and last circle of Hell. 
 
 CANTOS XXXII, XXXIII AND XXXIV 
 
 The ninth circle and the first two rings of the 
 Pit; a place which slopes inward from all sides 
 to a point, the apex of Hell, and the center of the 
 Earth. The sloping floor is ice, and by this the 
 various sinners are more or less covered. The 
 whole area is divided into four concentric rings, 
 only to be recognized from one another by the in- 
 creasing severity of their punishments. This is the 
 place of those who in committing fraud broke some 
 special tie or bond. Canto XXXII deals with the 
 first two circles ; Caina, where traitors to their kin, 
 and Antenora, where traitors to their country, 
 suffer. 
 
 To describe the bottom of the whole universe is 
 no task to undertake in jest, nor one for a tongue 
 that cries mamma and papa. 
 
 A little later Dante apostrophizes the treacherous 
 spirits of the Pit. 
 
 O you, more than all others, born in an evil hour, 
 who are in the place so difficult to picture, better had 
 it been for you if in the world you had been sheep 
 and goats!
 
 DANTE 129 
 
 When we had reached the dark chasm beneath 
 the feet of the giants, much lower down, and I was 
 still gazing at the lofty wall, I heard : 
 
 "Be careful how you step; walk so that you will 
 not trample under foot the heads of your miserable 
 weary brothers." 
 
 At this I turned and saw before me, and beneath 
 my feet, a lake which, because of the cold, had the 
 appearance of glass and not of water. 1 
 
 Here, neck-high in the ice of Caina, Dante sees 
 traitors, murderers of kin, and fratricides. 
 
 Every one held his face turned downward. At 
 the mouth the cold gives proof, 2 and sadness of 
 heart, at the eyes. 
 
 I saw a thousand faces by the cold made to show 
 what it really means to grin and bear, because of 
 which I shudder, and shall always at the sight of 
 frozen pools. 8 
 
 And while we were moving toward the center to 
 which all gravity collects, and I was shivering in 
 the eternal chill, whether it was the will of Heaven, 
 or destiny, or fortune, I do not know, but walking 
 
 1 The ice is significant of the cold-hearted nature of treach- 
 ery. 
 
 2 The chattering of their teeth shows how cold, and their 
 tears how wretched they are. 
 
 * A remarkable instance of Dante's realism.
 
 130 DANTE 
 
 among the heads, I struck my foot full in the face 
 of one. Wailing, he 4 upbraided me : 
 
 SHADE 
 
 "Why do you kick me? If you come not to in- 
 crease the vengeance of Mont'Aperti, why molest 
 me?" 
 
 DANTE 
 
 "Master, wait for me here, so that this spirit may 
 dispel a doubt I have. Afterward you shall hurry 
 as much as you like." 
 
 My guide stopped, and I said to the shade, still 
 bitterly blaspheming : 
 
 "Who are you to rebuke another?" 
 
 SHADE 
 
 "Now who are you that goes through Antenora, 
 striking the cheeks of others so that if you were 
 alive it would pass endurance ?" 
 
 DANTE 
 
 "I am alive, and it may be dear to you, if you 
 insist on fame, that I set your name among my 
 other verses." 
 
 * Bocca degli Abati, the basest of traitors of Florence, at the 
 battle of Mont'Aperti, 1260, cut off the hand of the standard 
 bearer and so brought about the rout and destruction of the 
 Florentines.
 
 DANTE 131 
 
 SHADE 
 
 "My wish is for the opposite. Take yourself off 
 and trouble me no more, for you little know how to 
 flatter in this place." 
 
 Thereupon I seized him by the hair on the back of 
 his head, and said : 
 
 "You shall tell me your name, else I will not leave 
 a hair upon you." 
 
 SHADE 
 
 "Though you strip me of hair I will not tell you 
 who I am, or let you find out, though you strike 
 your foot against my head a thousand times." 
 
 I had already twisted his hair, and had pulled out 
 more than one lock, he barking and holding his eyes 
 steadily down, when another shade snarled out: 
 
 "What ails you, Bocca ? Is it not enough to chat- 
 ter your teeth, but you must bark too? What devil 
 is at you ?" 
 
 DANTE 
 
 "Speak not, accursed traitor, for to your shame 
 will I take true news of you to Earth."
 
 132 DANTE 
 
 BOCCA 
 
 "Be gone now, and tell what you will, but be not 
 silent, if ever you go forth from this place, con- 
 cerning him whose tongue tattled so readily. He 
 here laments the silver of the French. 5 You can say, 
 'I saw him of Duera among the sinners in the 
 cold.' " 
 
 We had just left this one when I caught sight of 
 two shades frozen in one hole so that the head of 
 one of them overlapped that of the other. As bread 
 is devoured in hunger, so the upper set his teeth 
 upon the lower, there where brain and nape join. 
 
 DANTE 
 
 "O you, who, like the beasts, show such hatred 
 for him whom you are eating, tell me the reason, 
 and on this condition, that if you have just cause 
 against him, knowing who you are, and his sin, I 
 may yet make you even with him in the upper world, 
 provided I live to tell the tale." 
 
 The story which follows is that of Count Ugo- 
 lino, probably the most famous single story in The 
 
 8 Buoso da Duera, a traitor who took bribes from the 
 French in 1265, and therefore allowed their army to proceed 
 through Italy on its way to the conquest of the kingdom of 
 Naples.
 
 DANTE 133 
 
 Divine Comedy. It relates the history of men who, 
 for private ends, turned traitors to their country, 
 and of friends who, for personal aggrandizement, 
 turned treacherously against one another. 
 
 From his savage meal that sinner lifted his 
 mouth wiping it with hair he had torn from the 
 back of the other's head. Then he began : 
 
 "You ask me to renew a desperate sorrow, the 
 mere thought of which bows down my heart before 
 I have said a single word. But, if what I say shall 
 be the seed that may bear fruit of infamy for the 
 traitor whom I gnaw, you shall see me speak and 
 weep together. I do not know who you are, or how 
 you have come down here, but by your speech you 
 surely are a Florentine. Know then that I was 
 Count Ugolino, and this other the Archbishop Rug- 
 gieri. Now I will tell you why I am so hostile a 
 neighbor. There is no need to tell how, as result of 
 his malicious thoughts, I, putting my trust in him, 
 was seized and killed. But what you can not have 
 heard, namely, how cruel my death was, that you 
 shall hear, and then shall you judge if he has done 
 me wrong. 
 
 "A narrow opening in the prison which, from me, 
 gets the name of Famine, and in which others must 
 yet be shut up, had already shown me many moons 
 before I had the bad dream which rent for me the 
 veil of the future.
 
 134" DANTE 
 
 "This one appeared to be leader of the hunt, pur- 
 suing the wolf and his whelps upon the mountain 
 which prevents the Pisans seeing Lucca. .With lean, 
 eager, and well-trained hounds he had set in front 
 of him the Gualandi, Sismondi, and Lanfranchi. 6 
 After a short chase the father and his sons seemed 
 weary and I thought I saw their flanks ripped by 
 the hounds' sharp fangs. 
 
 "When I woke before dawn next day, I heard my 
 sons, who were with me, wailing in their sleep, and 
 asking for bread. Truly you are hard if already 
 you do not grieve at the thought of that which my 
 heart foresaw. If you do not shed tears at this, for 
 what are you in the habit of weeping? They were 
 now awake and the time was drawing near when 
 food used to be brought to us, and because of his 
 dream each was fearful. Down below I heard the 
 door of the horrible tower being nailed up. 7 At 
 
 "Three important Pisan families. 
 
 "The only parallel to this in English is the '^knocking" in 
 Macbeth, the effect of which De Quincey, in his essay, The 
 Knocking at the Gate, has analyzed with extraordinary deli- 
 cacy of perception and understanding. It deals with the 
 speech (Macbeth, Act ii, Sc. 2). "Whence is that knocking? 
 How is't with me, when every noise appals me?" 
 
 What De Quincey says of the structure of a great work of 
 poetry as reflecting the structure and character of a great 
 poet's mind, in Shakespeare's case, is equally applicable to 
 Dante's. 
 
 ^ "O Mighty Poet ! Thy works are not as those of other men, 
 simply and merely great works of art ; but are also like the 
 phenomena of nature, like the sun and the sea, the stars and the 
 flowers, like frost and snow, rain, dew, hail-storm and thunder 
 which are to be studied with entire submission of our own
 
 DANTET '135 
 
 i 
 
 this I looked on the faces of my sons, but said never 
 a word. I could not weep, I was so turned to stone. 
 They wept, and my poor little Anselm said, 'You 
 stare so, father, what ails you?' I did not shed a 
 tear for this, nor did I answer all that day, nor the 
 following night, nor until the next sun was rising. 
 When a slender beam found its way into our sad 
 dungeon I learned from their four faces what my 
 own appearance was. I bit my hands in misery, and 
 they, thinking that I did so through desire of eating, 
 suddenly raised themselves up, and said: 'Father, 
 it will be far less pain to us if you eat of us ; you did 
 clothe us with this wretched flesh, and do you strip 
 it off/ I quieted them, not to make them more sad. 
 That day and the next we all stayed dumb. Ah! 
 cruel Earth ! why did you not open ? After the fourth 
 day Gaddo threw himself stretched out at my feet,i 
 crying : 'My father, why do you not help me ?' Here 
 he died, and, as you see me, I saw the other three 
 fall, one after another, between the fifth day and 
 the sixth. Then I, already blind, began groping 
 over them, and for two days after they were dead 
 I called them. Then hunger did for me what sor- 
 row could not do." 
 
 When he had finished, with eyes askance, he again 
 
 faculties, and in the perfect faith that in them there can be no 
 too much or too little, nothing useless or inert, the further we 
 press in our discoveries, the more we shall see proofs of de- 
 sign and self-supporting argument where the careless eye had 
 seen nothing but accident.
 
 136 DANTE 
 
 seized the wretched skull with his teeth, that were 
 strong like a dog's upon a bone. 
 
 Ah, Pisa ! disgrace to the people of the fair coun- 
 try where sounds the si ! 8 Since your neighbors are 
 slow to punish you, may Caprara and Gorgona 9 
 move landward, and dike Arno's mouth so that 
 every person in you shall be drowned. For even 
 if Count Ugolino was reported to have betrayed you 
 in your strongholds you were not justified in so tor- 
 turing his sons. 
 
 CANTO XXXIV 
 
 The scene is laid in the fourth ring of the Pit, 
 the very bottom of Hell, called Judecca after Judas 
 Iscariot, arch-traitor. With the betrayer of Christ 
 are also Brutus and Cassius, the betrayers of Julius 
 Caesar, who was the founder of that Empire 
 which was divinely appointed for the earthly 
 dwelling of the Church. With them, and torment- 
 ing them, at the apex of Hell, is Lucifer, rebel 
 angel, traitor to God. When Virgil and Dante pass 
 the center of gravity, which is in the center of Lu- 
 cifer's body, they begin their ascent from Hell, go- 
 ing in the opposite direction to that of their descent, 
 and so ultimately emerging in the upper air, and the 
 southern hemisphere. 
 
 8 Dante means the common language of Italy in which si is 
 the word for yes. 
 
 'Islands lying a little way from the mouth of the Arno, on 
 whose banks Pisa is located.
 
 DANTE 137. 
 
 VIRGIL 
 
 "Vexilla rcgis prodeunt inferni 1 toward us; 
 therefore look forward. Seek to discern him if you 
 can." \ 
 
 As a distant windmill appears in dense fog, or 
 at the hour when the heavens are darkening to 
 night, such the thing that I saw there looked to me. 
 
 Because of the wind, I got behind my leader. 
 There was no other shelter. I was now, with fear 
 and trembling do I put it into verse, there where the 
 shades were altogether covered, and only showed 
 through like straws in glass. Some lie down ; some 
 are erect, this one with his head, that one with his 
 soles uppermost. Another, bow-like, bends his face 
 to his feet. 
 
 When we had advanced so far that it pleased my 
 master to show me the creature which had the fair 
 semblance, he moved from in front of me, saying: 
 
 "Behold, Dis ! Behold the place where you must 
 put on fortitude !" 
 
 Ask not how cold and weak I became, for I do 
 not write it, because no words can tell it. I did not 
 die, nor did I remain alive. Picture to yourself, if 
 you have aught of wit, what I became, deprived, 
 alike of life and death. 
 
 The emperor of the realms of woe rose above the 
 
 1 "The banners of the King" of Hell "advance." These are 
 the opening words of a hymn in honor of the Cross.
 
 138 DANTE 
 
 ice from the middle of his breast up. I approach 
 nearer to the stature of a giant, than giants to the 
 size of his arms. Learn from this how vast must 
 be the whole which is in proportion to such parts. 
 If he was once as fair as he now is foul, and lifted 
 up his brows against his Maker well may he have 
 been the cause of all tribulation. Oh! how great a 
 marvel it was to me that his head had three faces ! 
 The one in front was crimson red. The other two 
 met this just over the middle of each shoulder. The 
 three came together at the crown of his head. The 
 right-hand face was sallow; the left, black, like the 
 faces of those who come from the land of the Nile. 
 Below each a pair of great wings protruded, in size 
 proper for so huge a bird. Sails of the sea never 
 saw I such. They had no feathers, but were built 
 after the manner of the wings of bats. He was 
 flapping them so that three winds issued from him. 
 By these, all Cocytus 2 was frozen. With his six 
 eyes he was weeping, and down over his three chins 
 ran tears and bloody drivel. At each mouth he was 
 crunching a sinner with his teeth, so that he was 
 putting three of them to torment. To the sinner in 
 front 3 the biting was nothing in comparison with 
 the clawing, whereby sometimes his back would be 
 completely stripped of skin. 
 
 'Cocytus, one of the rivers of Hell, whose waters, frozen, 
 form the ice of the Pit 
 'Judas Iscariot.
 
 DANTE 139 
 
 VIRGIL 
 
 "That one up there who is suffering the greatest 
 agony is Judas Iscariot ; he who has his head within, 
 and legs writhing outside. Of the other two whose 
 heads hang down, he who dangles from the black 
 mouth is Brutus. Cassius is the other. But night 
 is again returning to the Earth and we must go, for 
 we have seen the whole." 
 
 As he bade me, I put my arms about his neck, 
 and he took advantage of time and place to catch 
 hold on the hairy flank of Lucifer at a moment 
 when his wings were spread wide apart. Down 
 from shock to shock between matted hair and 
 frozen scabs he picked his way. When we came to 
 the thigh, just where the haunch is thickest, my 
 leader, with effort, and short breaths, turned his 
 head to where his legs had been and gripped the 
 hair, as one does in climbing, so that I thought we 
 were returning to Hell. 
 
 VIRGIL 
 
 "Hold tight, for by such stairs must we depart 
 from so great evil." 
 
 At length he came forth through a cleft in the 
 rock, and put me down to sit upon its edge. 
 
 Dante and Virgil have now passed the center of 
 gravity and are arrived in the southern hemisphere.
 
 140 DANTE 
 
 In this change from the northern hemisphere to the 
 southern, there is a corresponding change in time 
 amounting to twelve hours. They will now spend 
 about as long a period, twenty- four hours, in climb- 
 ing to the surface of the Earth, as they have in de- 
 scending from the surface of the northern hemis- 
 phere to the point of Hell, or center of the universe. 
 
 VIRGIL 
 
 "Get to your feet, the way is long and the road is 
 difficult." 
 
 My leader and I at once set forth on the hidden 
 path to return to the world of light. Without 
 thought of resting we mounted up, he first, and I 
 after him, far enough for me to see through a round 
 opening some of the beautiful things of Heaven, and 
 thence we came out, and again beheld the stars. 4 
 
 4 These were the morning stars, and the time was close 
 upon five o'clock Easter morning. The stars, in themselves 
 regarded by Dante as objects of extremest beauty, and con- 
 stantly dwelt on, were also for him the instigators of hope 
 and agents of inspiration. With the word stelle, stars, he 
 ends each of the three parts of The Divine Comedy. 
 
 "Never was the very essence of vice so revealed as in the 
 Inferno, where the poet, as with a scalpel, lays bare the secret 
 motives of remembered and forgotten tragedies, anatomizing 
 sinner after sinner to find 'the cause in nature that makes 
 these hard hearts.' " GARDNER.
 
 PURGATORY 
 
 CANTOS I AND II 
 CANTO I 
 
 A low, beach-like shore, which girdles the moun- 
 tain of Purgatory, and separates it from the sea. 
 
 PURGATORY 
 
 It is here, about an hour before sunrise, on Easter 
 morning, that Dante and Virgil find themselves after 
 emerging from the underworld. 
 
 141
 
 142 DANTE 
 
 To sail over better waters the little vessel of my 
 genius now hoists her sails, leaving behind her so 
 cruel a sea. I will now sing of the second realm, 
 where the spirit of man is purified and made fit to 
 ascend to Heaven. 
 
 A lovely tinge of sapphire was brightening on the 
 tranquil face of Heaven, even to the horizon. It 
 brought back delight to my eyes as soon as I came 
 out from the dead air which had distressed both my 
 seeing and my breathing. The fair planet which 
 moves men to love 1 was making the whole eastern 
 sky to smile, veiling the fishes that were in her train. 
 I turned to the right, and saw four stars 2 never seen 
 save by the first people. 8 The Heavens appeared to 
 rejoice in their light. O northern region, widowed 
 because deprived of seeing them! 
 
 When I had withdrawn my gaze from these, 
 turning a little toward the north pole, from which 
 the Great Bear had already vanished, I saw close 
 by me a solitary old man in aspect worthy of so 
 much reverence that no son can owe more to his 
 father. He had a long beard, whitened like his 
 hair, which fell in two sweeps upon his breast. The 
 rays of the four holy stars so lit up his countenance 
 that I saw him as I should, had he been facing the 
 sun. 
 
 1 Venus at the Spring Equinox is in the sign of Pisces. 
 "These signify the cardinal virtues, Prudence, Temperance, 
 
 Fortitude and Justice. 
 *Adam and Eve.
 
 DANTE 143 
 
 "Who are you that counter to the dark stream 
 have escaped the eternal prison ?" said he, his vener- 
 able locks swaying. 
 
 "Who has guided you? Or who was a lamp to 
 light your way out of that black night which for- 
 ever darkens the infernal valley. Are the laws of 
 the abyss broken? Or is there a new decree in 
 Heaven, that, being damned,you come to my rocks?" 
 
 Thereupon my guide took hold of me, and with 
 words, hands, signs, made me bend my knees and 
 incline my brow. Then he answered him : 
 
 "I came not of my own accord, but because of a 
 lady, descended from Heaven, in reply to whose 
 prayers I offered myself to this one as guide. But 
 since you desire to know of the real nature of our 
 condition, it is not my wish to deny it. This man 
 has not yet seen his last evening, but because of his 
 folly he was so near to it that short time remained 
 for change. As I have told you, I was sent to rescue 
 him, and there was no other course to follow but the 
 one I have followed. I have shown him the guilty 
 people, all ; and now I mean to show him those souls 
 who, under your jurisdiction, cleanse them of their 
 sins. How I have brought him so far would be a long 
 story. From on high I received the power to guide 
 him to this place where he can see and hear you. May 
 it please you to look graciously upon his coming. 
 He goes in search of liberty, 4 the value of which is 
 
 4 "The glorious liberty of the children of God." Romans 
 viii :21.
 
 144 DANTE 
 
 known to him who gives his life for it. You 8 know 
 this, since for the sake of it you did not find death 
 bitter when, in Utica, you cast off that mortal ves- 
 ture which shall indeed shine at the Resurrection. 
 The everlasting laws are not broken for us. This 
 man is alive, and Minos does not control me. 6 I 
 am from the circle where are the chaste eyes of your 
 Marcia, who, by her looks, still beseeches you to hold 
 her for your own. By the love you have for her 
 incline your heart to us; suffer us to proceed 
 through your sevenfold domain. 7 I will report 
 your goodness to her, if you will condescend to be 
 mentioned there below." 
 
 CATO 
 
 "While I lived Marcia was so pleasant to my eyes 
 that I granted every favor she desired. Now that 
 her dwelling place is on the far side of the evil 
 stream, 8 in conformity with that law which was 
 made when I came forth from Hell, she can no 
 longer move me. But if, as you say, a lady from 
 
 6 This is Cato, the younger, who took his own life rather 
 than lose his liberty. 
 
 * Virgil's place in Hell is the first circle, Limbo, while Minos 
 holds control from the second circle down. 
 
 7 The seven circles of Purgatory. 
 "Acheron, the river which encircles Hell. 
 
 "The redeemed can not be concerned with the condition of 
 the lost, no matter what the earthly relations between the two 
 may have been, for to be sorry for the damned would be 
 equivalent to regretting the justice, and doubting the good- 
 ness of God, and to do this would be inconsistent with the
 
 DANTE 145 
 
 Heaven sent you, you have no call for persuasive 
 words. It is enough that in her name you ask my 
 aid. Go your way, and see to it that you gird this 
 man with a smooth rush, and that you wash his 
 face clean of all grime, for it is not becoming to 
 present one's self before the first of the Ministers of 
 Paradise with eyes dimmed by any veil. Around 
 the margin, down yonder where the waves break 
 upon it, the soft mud of this little island bears 
 rushes. No other plant that puts forth leaves or 
 makes stems can live there because no other can 
 bend with the waves. When you have done as I 
 bid you, return no more this way. The sun which 
 is just rising will show you how to take the moun- 
 tain by an easier ascent." 
 
 < 
 
 Cato departs and Virgil and Dante go down to 
 the shore. 
 
 My master spread his hands gently on the grass 
 whereat I, who understood his purpose, stretched 
 my tear-stained cheeks toward him. He washed 
 clean the color of my face which Hell had covered 
 up. Then we went down to that barren strand 
 which never knew man return after setting sail upon 
 its waters. Here he girt me even as .Cato had 
 directed. 
 
 state of the redeemed, which state is one of perfect accord 
 with the will of God.
 
 146 DANTE 
 
 CANTO II 
 
 We were lingering on the shore like people think- 
 ing of their road, in heart going forward, but in 
 body moving not at all. 
 
 And lo I as when, upon the approach of morning, 1 
 Through the gross vapours Mars grows fiery red 
 Down in the West upon the ocean floor, 
 
 Appeared to me may I again behold it I 
 A light along the sea so swiftly coming, 
 Its motion by no flight of wing is equalled ; 
 
 From which when I a little had withdrawn 
 Mine eyes, that I might question my Conductor, 
 Again I saw it brighter grown and larger. 
 
 Then on each side of it appeared to me 
 I knew not what of white, and underneath it 
 Little by little there came forth another. 
 
 My Master yet had uttered not a word 
 While the first whiteness into wings unfolded ; 
 But when he clearly recognized the pilot, 
 
 He cried : "Make haste, make haste to bow the knee ! 
 Behold the Angel of God 1 fold thou thy hands 1 
 Henceforward shalt thou see such officers 1 
 
 See how he scorneth human arguments, 
 So that nor oar he wants, nor other sail 
 Than his own wings, between so distant shores. 
 
 See how he holds them pointed up to heaven, 
 Fanning the air with the eternal pinions, 
 That do not moult themselves like mortal hair 1" 
 
 Then as still nearer and more near us came 
 The Bird Divine, more radiant he appeared, 
 So that, near by the eye could not endure him, 
 
 But down I cast it ; and he came to shore 
 With a small vessel, very swift and light, 
 So that the water swallowed naught thereof. 
 
 Upon the stern stood the Celestial Pilot; 
 Beatitude seemed written in his face, 
 And more than a hundred spirits sat within. 
 
 1 This lovely translation of the description of the sunrise, 
 and the angel-steered boat, bringing and landing the souls of 
 the saved upon the beach at the foot of Purgatory, is Long- 
 fellow's.
 
 DANTE 147 
 
 "In exitu Israel de Aegypto !" 2 
 
 They chanted all together in one voice, 
 
 With whatso in that psalm is after written. 
 Then made he sign of holy rood 3 upon them, 
 
 Whereat all cast themselves upon the shore, 
 
 And he departed swiftly as he came. 
 
 The new-landed souls, being strange to the place, 
 ask guidance of Dante and Virgil. Virgil tells them 
 that he and his companion have likewise just ar- 
 rived, though by another way, i. e., from Hell, and 
 not, as the shaded of the redeemed, from the mouth 
 of the Tiber, where, at death, they gather. 
 
 I saw one of them come forward to embrace me 
 with such great affection that it moved me to do the 
 like. O shades, empty save in appearance! Thrice 
 did I throw my arms about him, and as often did 
 they return upon my own breast. With astonish- 
 ment my countenance changed, whereat the shade 
 smiled, and drew back, and I, pursuing it, pressed 
 forward. Gently he bade me pause. I then realized 
 who he 4 was, and I besought him to stay a little and 
 to talk with me. He answered : 
 
 1 Psalm cxiv. "When Israel went up out of Egypt." Its 
 appropriateness in this place is dependent upon the spiritual 
 significance of going from a state of corruption to the free- 
 dom of eternal glory. 
 
 * Holy Cross. 
 
 4 Casella was a musician and a friend of Dante's. Rarely 
 has the essence of friendship, that "peculiar boon of Heaven," 
 been so adequately and touchingly clothed in words, as in 
 this passage.
 
 148 DANTE 
 
 "Even as I loved you in the mortal body, so, out 
 of it, I love you still. That is why I stop. But 
 wherefore do you take this journey ?" 
 
 "My Casella,"* I replied, "in order that I may 
 again return to where I now am. But, tell me, how 
 is it that you have lost so much time?" 5 
 
 CASELLA 
 
 "No wrong has been done me if he 8 who takes 
 both when, and whom, he pleases, has many times 
 denied me passage : for on a righteous will his will 
 depends." 
 
 DANTE 
 
 "If a new rule 7 has not deprived you of the mem- 
 ory or the practise of that song of love with which, 
 in times gone by, you quieted all my longings, may it 
 please you therewith to comfort now my soul which, 
 coming hither with its body, is so very weary." 
 
 "Love which in my heart discourseth with me," 
 he then began so sweetly, that the sweetness yet 
 stays with me. 8 My master, and the throng that 
 
 ^ " Dante expresses surprise that Casella has not, in the time 
 since his death, gone farther. 
 
 8 The celestial pilot. 
 
 * Conditions different from those of Earth. 
 
 8 Casella begins to sing a verse of Dante's own early writing 
 which, probably, he had set to music. The gentleness and 
 affection implied in Casella's choice of this song is equaled by 
 the intense delight which Dante has just said was formerly 
 his, when sung to by his friend on earth.
 
 DANTE 149 
 
 stood about, appeared so charmed that nothing else 
 could get the attention of any one of them. 
 
 None stirred, and all of us were rapt by his 
 strains; when suddenly, the venerable old man 
 cried : 
 
 "What means it, laggard spirits? What negli- 
 gence is this, and why this halting? Make haste to 
 the mountain m order to strip off the veil which 
 keeps you from seeing God." 9 
 
 CANTOS III TO IX 
 
 Various parts of the region outside the Gate of 
 Purgatory. This region is called Ante-Purgatory. 
 
 The spirits of those who put off repentance until 
 the end of their lives are detained here. There are 
 four distinct classes of them. First, those who be- 
 came penitent at the hour of death, but died under 
 ban of the Church. Second, those who from 
 mere indolence put off repenting. Third, those who 
 repented at the instant of being overtaken by violent 
 death. Fourth, kings and princes who deferred re- 
 pentance because of the cares of state. 
 
 The first of these four classes is compelled to 
 wait in Ante-Purgatory for a period thirty times as 
 long as on Earth they persisted in an unrepentant 
 state. The other three are detained for a time equal 
 to the length of their earthly lives. In every case 
 
 * Sin dims or veils man's eyes to the vision of God.
 
 150" DANTE' 
 
 the time may be cut short by the prayers of the 
 living. 
 
 CANTO III 
 
 Dante and Virgil meet a company of shades, and 
 Virgil asks them the way. One of them, speaking 
 to Dante, says : 
 
 "Whoever you are, turn your face toward me as 
 you go. Think, if you did ever see me in the 
 world?" 
 
 I turned to him, and looked steadfastly. He was 
 blond and beautiful, and of gentle look, but a blow 
 had severed one of his eyebrows. 
 
 When I humbly disclaimed ever having seen him, 
 he said : 
 
 "Now look!" 
 
 and showed me a wound above his breast. Then, 
 smiling: 
 
 "I am Manfred, 1 grandson of the Empress Con- 
 stance, wherefore I entreat you upon your return, 
 go to my fair daughter, parent of the glory of Sicily 
 and Aragon, and tell her the truth, if other than the 
 
 1 The illegitimate son of the Emperor Frederic II, who was 
 king of Sicily. The Papacy was hostile to him, and he died, 
 under ban of excommunication, at the battle of Benevento, in 
 1266. He desires the prayers of his daughter Constance for 
 the lessening of the time before he can enter Purgatory 
 proper, and the ultimate hastening of his entry into Paradise.
 
 DANTE 151 
 
 truth be told. After my body had been pierced by 
 two mortal stabs, I, weeping, gave myself to Him 
 who pardons willingly. My sins were horrible, but 
 such wide arms has Infinite Goodness that it ac- 
 cepts all who turn to it. If the Pastor of Cosenza, 2 
 who by Clement was set to pursue me, had read 
 aright this page of God's Word, my bones would still 
 be at the head of the bridge near Benevento, under 
 the heavy pile of stones. Now the rain washes 
 them, and the wind moves them beyond the king- 
 dom, hard by the Verde, whither, with unlighted 
 candles, he carried them. Through curse like theirs 
 man is not so lost that Eternal Love can not return 
 so long as hope remains the least speck green. It is 
 true that he who dies insubordinate to Holy Church, 
 though he repent at the last, must remain outside, 
 thirtyfold the whole time that he has lived in his 
 presumption, if such decree be not shortened by 
 good prayers. See if, hereafter, you can speed my 
 happiness by revealing to my good Constance that 
 you have seen me, and also my sentence, for in this 
 place much may be gained by the prayers of those on 
 Earth." 
 
 2 The Pope ordered the Archbishop of Cosenza to disinter 
 Manfred's body, and leave it dishonored, without funeral 
 rites, unburied, as became the corpse of one dying under 
 sentence of excommunication.
 
 152 DANTE 
 
 CANTO IV 
 
 The sun had climbed full fifty degrees, but I 
 had not noticed it, when we came to a place where 
 the shades, with one voice, cried out to us : 
 
 "Here is what you seek." 
 
 When grapes grow purple, the farm-hand often 
 fills a larger gap in the hedge, with a forkful of 
 thorns, than the passage by which my guide, and I 
 following him, went up, after the troop of shades 
 had left us. We ascended through the cleft rock, 
 the wall pressing close on either side. The ground 
 beneath required both feet and hands. 
 
 The summit was so lofty that it reached beyond 
 my sight, and the slope was steeper far than forty- 
 five degrees. I was weary, when I began : 
 
 "O gentle father, turn and see how I shall be left 
 alone, if you do not wait for me." 
 
 "My son," said he, "drag yourself to that place," 
 pointing to a ledge somewhat higher up, which on 
 this side runs round the entire mountain. So 
 spurred was I by his words that I forced myself 
 forward, scrambling after him until the ledge was 
 reached. There we both sat down, turning toward 
 the east, whence we had come up, for to look back 
 is sure to encourage a climber. 
 
 While sitting in this place Dante says : 
 
 "If it pleases you, gladly would I know how far
 
 DANTE 153 
 
 we have to go, for the hill rises higher than my eyes 
 can reach." 
 
 VIRGIL 
 
 "This mountain is such 1 that always at the be- 
 ginning it is difficult, but the higher one goes the 
 less it tires him. When it shall seem so pleasant 
 to you that climbing is as easy as going down 
 stream in a boat, then will you be at the end of 
 your journey. There you may expect to cease from 
 toil. More I do not answer. This much I know to 
 be true." 
 
 When he had stopped speaking a voice near by 
 said: 
 
 "Before then, perhaps, you will be compelled to 
 sit down." 
 
 Dante now discovers the shades of those, who, 
 through indolence, had put off making their peace 
 with God, seated in the shadow of a great rock, 
 heads bent, and knees clasped. He who has just 
 spoken turns out to be an old friend, a Florentine, 
 reputed the laziest man who ever lived. Dante turns 
 to him and says : 
 
 "I shall grieve no more 2 for you, Belacqua, but 
 tell me why you are sitting here? Do you wait a 
 
 'This is an allegorical account of the progress of repentance 
 which at the beginning is hard, but, persevered in, grows 
 easier. 
 
 1 Dante shows his own temper of mind in the humor of his
 
 154 DANTE 
 
 guide, or is it only that your accustomed sloth has 
 resumed its sway ?" 
 
 BELACQUA 
 
 "Brother, what's the use of going up? For God's 
 winged angel that sits at the gate would not let me 
 pass to the torments 8 within. It is necessary first 
 that the Heavens shall revolve around me outside 
 the gate, as long as they did in life, because I put 
 off the sighs of repentance to the very last. Unless, 
 sooner than this, the prayer of a heart that lives in 
 grace, rises to my assistance, what help can come of 
 the prayers of others, for they are not heard in 
 Heaven?" 
 
 CANTO V 
 
 Virgil and Dante are surrounded by a large com- 
 pany of shades, of whom Virgil says: 
 
 "These people that press upon us are many, and 
 they come to make a request of you, but keep on 
 moving all the same, and listen as you go." 
 
 SHADES 
 
 "O soul that in the flesh to which you were born, 
 is on the way to everlasting joy, tarry a little. Look, 
 if ever you have seen any one of us, so that you may 
 
 relief at finding his friend among the elect, though, for indo- 
 lence, "the same old sixpence." 
 *The sufferings to be undergone in Purgatory proper.
 
 DANTE 155 
 
 carry tidings of him back to Earth. Why do you 
 press on? Why do you not stop ? Every one of us 
 was slain by violence, and a sinner to the last hour. 
 Then light from Heaven made us take thought so 
 that, both penitent and forgiving, we died at peace 
 with God, Who overwhelms our hearts with the de- 
 sire of beholding Him." 
 
 DANTE 
 
 "However much I gaze upon your faces I recog- 
 nize no one of you; but if there is anything that I 
 can do for you, spirits elect, say what it may be, 
 and I will do it for the sake of that peace 1 which, 
 following in the steps of such a guide, causes me to 
 seek it from world to world." 
 
 Dante now converses with these souls. One of 
 them says : 
 
 "Ah! So that the desire may be fulfilled which 
 draws you to the high mountain, do you, with gentle 
 pity, aid the fulfilment of my wish. I was of Monte- 
 feltro, and am Buonconte. 2 Joan, 8 nor any other, 
 
 1 The peace which passeth understanding. 
 
 "Though born of the noble family of Montefeltro, like all 
 men, he ceases after death to hold the titles of this world. 
 He is now just Buonconte. He was a leader of the Emperor's 
 forces at the battle of Campaldino, in 1289. The swollen 
 waters pouring down from the Apennines took his body from 
 the place where he had fallen in his flight, the confluence of 
 the Archiano and the Arno, and carried it down stream. 
 
 BuoDconte's wife.
 
 156 DANTE 
 
 gives a thought to me. That is why I move among 
 this throng with downcast countenance." 
 
 DANTE 
 
 "What violence, or what chance, caused you to 
 stray so far from Campaldino that your burial place 
 was never known ?" 
 
 BUONCONTE 
 
 "The lower Casentino is crossed by a stream 
 called the Archiano, which rises in the Apennines 
 above the Hermitage. I reached the place where 
 it loses its name, 2 stabbed through the throat, flee- 
 ing on foot, bloodying the plain. There sight failed 
 me, and my words ended with the name of Mary. 
 There I sank down, and my body remained alone. I 
 will tell the truth, and do you report it among the 
 living. The Angel of God took me, and one from 
 Hell cried out : 
 
 " 'O you of Heaven, why do you rob me? You 
 carry away the eternal part of him for one little 
 tear* that snatches him from me. I will deal in a 
 different way with the mortal part.' 6 
 
 "You know how moist vapor, collecting in the 
 air, turns to water when it rises to where the cold 
 
 4 His last moment was repentant 
 'His body.
 
 DANTE 157 
 
 condenses it. The angel from Hell joined his ma- 
 licious will, which seeks only evil, to his intelligence, 
 and stirred up the mist and the wind by the power 
 which his nature gave him. Then, when the day 
 was spent, he covered the valley with cloud, from 
 Pratomagno to the great mountain chain, making 
 the o'erhanging sky so heavy that the moisture- 
 laden air turned to water. Down came the rain. 
 What the earth could not absorb ran to the gullies. 
 It gathered in torrents and rushed so swiftly toward 
 the royal river that nothing could check it. The 
 raging Archiano found my frozen body at its mouth 
 and swept it into the Arno. It loosened the cross 
 I had made with my arms upon my breast at the 
 moment I yielded to the agony of death. It rolled 
 me along its banks, and over its bed, and with its 
 debris covered and entangled me." 
 
 This story, justly famous for the way in which 
 the lonely death and unheeded memory of Buon- 
 conte is told a tale of violent and solitary dying, 
 and of a life at once forgotten by wife, and kin, 
 and friend is immediately followed by another, in 
 which deep pathos and intense tragedy are implied 
 rather than detailed, in one of the most vivid bits 
 of impressionism ever painted in words. The shade 
 of Pia, member of one of the great families of 
 Siena, who was put to death by her husband, a lord 
 of Maremma, says to Dante :
 
 158 DANTE 
 
 "And when you shall have returned to the world, 
 and rested from your long journey, remember me, 
 who am Pia. Siena made me. Maremma unmade 
 me. He knows, who, first plighting troth, had 
 wedded me with his ring." 6 
 
 CANTO VI 
 
 The same scene as in Canto V. Dante and Virgil 
 move forward, and Dante leaves the shades with 
 the promise to carry back news of them to their 
 friends, and so secure prayers for them. He likens 
 his position to that of a winner in a game of 
 chance, fawned on by the bystanders and anxious 
 to get away. 
 
 When a game of hazard is over, he who loses 
 remains behind, disconsolate, repeating the throws, 
 and, disappointed, learns. The crowd follows the 
 winner. One goes in front, and another catches at 
 him from behind, and a third, at his side, makes 
 himself known. The winner does not stop. He 
 listens to one, and to another. The man to whom 
 he gives something presses on him no longer, and 
 
 "A deal of womanly gentleness and considerate tenderness, 
 and of a modesty that shrank even from asking prayers for 
 her soul's easement, is compressed into Pia's sad story told 
 "in a few simple sentences, but so clearly, and so tersely, that 
 the passage has always been reputed one of those that dem- 
 onstrate to the fullest extent Dante's marvelous power of 
 condensed narrative." Vernon.
 
 DANTE 159 
 
 so he protects himself from the crowd. Such was 
 I in that dense throng, as I turned my face to them 
 on every side, and, by giving promises, escaped. 
 
 Virgil discourses to Dante on the efficacy of 
 prayer, closing his remarks with the words : 
 
 "I speak of Beatrice. You shall see her up above, 
 smiling and happy, upon the summit of this moun- 
 tain." 
 
 And I: "My Lord, let us advance with greater 
 speed, for I am no longer weary as I was a while 
 ago; 1 and see how the mountain casts its shadow.". 
 
 "We will go forward so far as daylight allows," 
 he answered; "but the fact is not as you imagine. 
 Before you can be up there you will see him return 
 that is at present hidden behind the hill so that now 
 you do not intercept his rays. But see, yonder a 
 soul, which, stationed all alone, is looking toward 
 us ; it will point out to us the quickest way." 
 
 We came near to it. O Lombard soul, with what 
 lofty and disdainful mien did you bear yourself; 
 and, in the movement of your eyes how grave and 
 slow ! It spoke not a word, but let us go on, eying 
 
 /The mere, but oh I how clever naming of Beatrice by Vir- 
 gil, is more than enough to make Dante forget that he is tired. 
 A world of human nature is implied by Dante's "I am no 
 longer tired" ; no less a world of human understanding ; of 
 wholly beautiful and highly humorous sympathy, is implied by 
 Virgil's mention of Beatrice. The dialogue is fascinatingly 
 real ; a true love scene if ever there was one.
 
 160 DANTE 
 
 us like a couchant lion. None the less did Virgil 
 approach closer, praying that it would show us the 
 best ascent. It made no answer to his request, but 
 asked us about our country, and our life. And my 
 gentle guide began: 
 
 "Mantua" and the shade, all absorbed in itself, 
 rose toward him, exclaiming: 
 
 "O Mantuan, I am Sordello 2 of your city." 
 
 And they embraced each other. 
 
 CANTO VII 
 
 The incident of Virgil and Sordello is continued. 
 
 After dignified and joyous salutations had been 
 thrice and four times repeated Sordello drew back, 
 and said : 
 
 "Who are you?" 
 
 VIRGIL 
 
 "My bones had been buried by Octavian before 
 ever souls, fit to ascend to God, were directed to this 
 mountain. 1 I am Virgil, and for no other sin did I 
 lose Heaven than that of not having faith." 
 
 2 Little is known of Sordello, save that Dante held him in 
 high respect. The bond of being citizens of the same city, 
 Mantua, and love of their common birthplace, causes the 
 haughty, high-bred Sordello to come out of himself and wel- 
 come Virgil, who, as yet, he knows merely as a fellow-citizen. 
 
 1 Virgil died A. D. 19, before Christ's crucifixion, and hence 
 before the way to eternal life had been made plain to man.
 
 DANTE 161 
 
 Like one who suddenly sees something that aston- 
 ishes him, which at the same instant causes him to 
 believe and disbelieve, exclaiming : "It is, it is not," 
 such seemed Sordello's shade. Then he bowed 
 his head, and came humbly toward my guide, and 
 embraced him where an inferior embraces. 2 
 
 BORDELLO 
 
 "O Glory of the Latins, by whom our language 
 was made to show what it could do; O Eternal 
 Honor of the place where I was born, what merit 
 or what grace reveals you to me? If I am worthy 
 to be spoken to, tell me if you come from Hell, and 
 from what circle." 
 
 VIRGIL 
 
 "Through all the circles of the realm of woe 
 came I here. The power of Heaven moved me by 
 its authority, and I came. Not for what I did, but 
 for what I did not do, have I lost the vision of the 
 high Sun 8 for which you long, and about which I 
 learned too late. 4 There is a place in the under- 
 world, sad, not with torments but only with gloom, 
 where sighs have not the sound of wailing, but of 
 lamentation. In that place I abide with the little 
 innocents whom death stung before they had been 
 
 ' Below the knees. 
 *God. 
 J Virgil did not know about Christ until after his own death.
 
 162 DANTE 
 
 cleansed of mortal sin. 5 In that place I dwell with 
 those who were not clothed with the three holy vir- 
 tues, 6 but without fault of any kind knew the oth- 
 ers, and practised all of them. 7 But if you know, 
 and can, point out to us the way whereby we may 
 more quickly reach the place where Purgatory has 
 its real beginning." 
 
 SORDELLO 
 
 "No fixed place is assigned to us. I am free to go 
 up and round about. For so far as I am permitted 
 I will guide you. But note already how the day 
 declines. To ascend by night is impossible; hence 
 it is well to find a pleasant resting place. Yonder, to 
 the right, apart from the others, is a company of 
 souls. With your consent I will lead you to them, 
 and not without delight will they be known to you." 
 
 VIRGIL 
 
 "How is it? Would he who wished to ascend at 
 night be prevented by others, or could he not go up 
 for lack of power?" 
 
 And the good Sordello drew his finger on the 
 ground, saying: 
 
 "Look! you could not even cross this line after 
 
 " Before they were baptized. 
 
 The Christian virtues, Faith, Hope and Charity. 
 T The Cardinal virtues, Temperance, Fortitude, Justice and 
 Prudence.
 
 DANTE 163 
 
 the sun is gone; not however that anything save 
 the darkness of the night would hinder. It hinders 
 the will with impotence. 8 One might turn down- 
 ward in the darkness and roam about the mountain 
 so long as day remains below the horizon." 
 Thereon my lord, as though in wonder, said : 
 "Lead us there where you say we may have de- 
 light while waiting." 
 
 Short distance had we gone when I discovered 
 that the mountain side was hollowed out, as on Earth 
 the valleys are. 
 
 SORDELLO 
 
 "Over there where the hill side forms a lap, we 
 will go, and there we will await the morrow." 
 
 In places, steep, in others, level, a winding path led 
 us along the edge of the valley to where its border 
 more than half dies away. Gold and fine silver, 
 scarlet and pearl, white, blue of indigo, new emerald 
 at the moment it is split, would each be outshone by 
 the herbage and the flowers of that valley, as the 
 less is exceeded by the greater. Not only had Na- 
 ture given color there, but of a thousand scents she 
 had made one unknown and blended fragrance. 
 
 Here, seated upon the green, and among flowers, 
 I saw souls, because of the depression, not visible 
 
 This is allegory. It means that the soul can ascend Purga- 
 tory, the mountain of purification, only when illumined by the 
 Sun of Grace.
 
 164 DANTE 
 
 from without. They were singing, "Salve Re- 
 gina." 9 
 
 Sordello points out, and names, some of these 
 souls, 10 beginning : 
 
 "He who sits highest and has the look of having 
 left undone that which he should have done, and 
 does not join in singing with the others, was Ru- 
 dolph the Emperor, who might have healed the 
 wounds that have slain Italy." 11 
 
 CANTO VIII 
 
 Valley of princes. 
 
 It was the hour that makes sailors long for home 
 and softens their hearts, the day when they have 
 bade farewell to their dear friends, the hour that 
 fills, with love, him who has just set out upon 
 a journey, if from afar he hears the bell which 
 seems to mourn the dying day. 1 I began to lose 
 
 8 A beautiful hymn appointed to be sung at certain seasons 
 just before nightfall, and peculiarly appropriate to these souls 
 in exile, as it were. "Hail, Queen, Mother of Mercy! To 
 thee, we exiled Sons of Eve, do cry come then, our Advo- 
 cate, when the exile is o'er, and show us Jesus." 
 
 "These souls are those of kings and princes who did not 
 repent until the end because of the weight of the cares of 
 state. 
 
 "Rudolph of Hapsburg, crowned in 1273. 
 
 1 Byron imitated this beautiful description of the effect 
 of twilight in bringing thoughts of home to the mariner and 
 pilgrim. Don Juan, III.
 
 DANTE 165 
 
 consciousness of what was being said, and to look, 
 with wonder, at one of the shades, who, uprisen, 
 claimed attention with his hand. It joined and 
 lifted both its palms, fixing its eyes upon the East, 
 as though it were saying to God, "For aught else I 
 care not." "Te lucis ante" 2 came so devoutly from 
 its lips, and in tones so sweet, that it took me out 
 of my very self. And then the others, sweetly and 
 reverently accompanied it through the entire hymn 
 to the end, keeping their gaze upon the heavenly 
 spheres. Here, Reader, open wide your eyes to the 
 truth, for truly the veil 8 is now so slight that it is 
 easy to pass within. 
 
 Thereupon I saw that noble company all silently 
 look upward, pale and meek, as if in expectation; 
 and I saw two angels come forth and descend from 
 on high, with two flaming swords, blunted and with- 
 out points. Green* as leaves of spring was their 
 raiment, which, beaten and blown by their green 
 wings, they trailed behind them. One came and 
 
 "Soft hour I which wakes the wish and melts the heart, 
 Of those v;ho sail the seas, on the first day 
 
 When they from their sweet friends are torn apart ; 
 Or fills with love the pilgrim on his way, 
 
 As the far bell of vesper makes him start 
 Seeming to weep the dying day's decay;" 
 
 'It is the Latin form of the much-loved evening hymn 
 which begins : "Before the ending of the day." 
 
 'The allegory refers probably to the fact that these souls 
 outside Purgatory are still subject to temptation, and must 
 call upon God for help to resist The serpent signifies temp- 
 tation ; the angels, God's help. 
 
 4 Green is the color of hope.
 
 166 DANTE 
 
 stationed himself a little above us, and the other 
 swept his way to the opposite bank so that all the 
 inhabitants were guarded between them. I saw 
 clearly that their heads were blond, but by their 
 faces the eye was dazzled, as every sense is con- 
 founded by excess. 
 
 "Both of them come from the bosom of Mary," 
 said Sordello, "to keep watch over the valley, be- 
 cause of the serpent that will straightway come." 
 Hearing this, I, who knew not by what way, chilled 
 through, turned and drew; close to my trusted 
 leader. 
 
 Sordello began again: 
 
 "Let us now go down among the mighty shades 
 and speak with them; to see you will give them 
 joy." 
 
 I think I took only three steps down. There be- 
 low I noticed one who was looking hard at me 
 alone, as if he thought to recognize me. It was al- 
 ready dusk, but not so dark that the little space be- 
 tween his eyes and mine did not allow to be seen 
 what distance had before concealed. He drew very 
 near to me, and I approached him. Noble Judge 
 Nino ! what delight it was to me when I saw that 
 you were not among the damned ! No kind greet- 
 ing was left unsaid by us. Then he asked : 
 
 "How long is it since you arrived at the foot of 
 the mountain from beyond the wide waters?" 
 
 "Oh," replied I to him, "I came this morning
 
 DANTE 167 
 
 from the realms of woe and am still in the mortal 
 life although by making this journey I hope to gain 
 the immortal." 
 
 And when they had heard my reply, Sordello and 
 he drew themselves back like people suddenly be- 
 wildered. 5 One of them turned to Virgil, and the 
 other to a shade seated close by, crying : 
 
 "Up, Corrado, come and see what God through 
 grace has willed." 
 
 Then turning to me : 
 
 NINO 
 
 "By that exceptional gratitude which you owe 
 Him who so hides His prime motive that no human 
 being can fathom it, when you shall again be on the 
 far side of the wide sea, tell my Joan 8 to make inter- 
 cession for me there where answer is made to the 
 innocent. I do not think her mother any longer 
 loves me since she has changed her white weeds, 
 which she, miserable creature, must even now wish 
 back. Through her one may easily understand how 
 long the fire of love lasts in a woman if sight and 
 touch do not often feed its flame." 
 
 My eyes meantime I kept bent wholly upon the 
 
 'Because heretofore Sordello, absorbed in talk with Virgil, 
 had not perceived that Dante was a living, breathing man. 
 8 Judge Nino's daughter.
 
 168 DANTE 
 
 heavens ; only on that part where the stars are slow- 
 est, 7 just as a wheel is, nearest the axle. 
 
 VIRGIL 
 "My son, what look you at so fixedly up there ?" 
 
 DANTE 
 
 "At those three torches 8 with which the pole on 
 this side blazes." 
 
 VIRGIL 
 
 "The four bright stars 8 which you saw this morn- 
 ing have sunk low down upon the other side and 
 these have risen in their place." 
 
 While Virgil was still speaking Sordello drew 
 him to himself, exclaiming: 
 
 "See, there's our adversary!" and pointed with 
 his finger to look that way. On the side where the 
 little valley had no defense was a serpent, such an 
 one perhaps as offered Eve the bitter fruit. Through 
 grass and flowers came the evil thing, now and 
 again turning its head backward, licking like a beast 
 
 ' The South Pole. 
 
 "The three bright stars which symbolize Faith, Hope and 
 Charity which Dante sees looking to the Pole from the south 
 side of the Equator. 
 
 'Justice, Fortitude, Prudence and Temperance.
 
 DANTE 169 
 
 that strokes its coat. I did not see, and therefore 
 can not tell how the celestial falcons moved, but I 
 distinctly saw both of them in motion. Hearing 
 their green pinions cleave the air, the serpent fled, 
 and the angels wheeled upward to their posts with 
 equal flight. 
 
 CANTO IX 
 
 The gate of Purgatory. With this canto Dante 
 concludes his account of Ante-Purgatory and the 
 condition of the waiting souls not yet admitted to 
 Purgatory proper. From this point to the close of 
 Canto XXVII, the poem treats of the sufferings 
 and purgation of the souls of those who gave way 
 to any of the seven mortal sins, Pride, Envy, Anger, 
 Sloth, Avarice, Gluttony and Lust. The time is 
 about two and a half hours after sundown. 
 
 The concubine of old Tithonus 1 rising from the 
 arms of her fond lover was already gleaming sil- 
 very on the balcony of the east. Her brow was 
 glistening with stars set in the shape of the cold- 
 blooded creature 2 that stings people with its tail. 
 And in the place where we were, Night had taken 
 two of the steps 8 by which she ascends, and for the 
 
 1 Aurora, the true wife of Tithonus, as preceding sunrise, 
 and the lunar Aurora, his concubine, the light which precedes 
 moonrise. 
 
 * The sign of the Scorpion was on the horizon. 
 
 "The steps are the first six hours of the night, from six 
 p. m. to midnight.
 
 170 DANTE 
 
 third, the wings were already bending down; when 
 I, who still had something of Adam 4 in me, over- 
 come by sleep, fell back upon the grass there where 
 all five of us 6 were seated. 
 
 At the hour near day-break when the little swal- 
 low begins her plaintive lays, 6 recollecting mayhap 
 her former woes, and when mortal mind, more free 
 of the flesh and less subject to thought, is almost 
 prophetic in its visions, in dream I saw an eagle 
 'with golden feathers, poised in mid-air, with wings 
 outspread, ready to swoop. I seemed to be there, 7 
 where Ganymede was abandoned by his compan- 
 ions when he was snatched aloft to Olympus. Then 
 it seemed to me that circling a little, terrible as a 
 thunderbolt he swooped down, and caught me up- 
 ward as high as the fire. 8 Then he and I seemed to 
 burn, and the imagined flame scorched so, that of 
 necessity my sleep was broken. As slumber fled I 
 started up, pale, like a man frozen with fear. Beside 
 me was my comforter only, and the sun was more 
 than two hours high, 9 and my face was toward the 
 sea. 
 
 "Have no fear," said my lord : "be reassured, for 
 
 4 Human nature needing rest. 
 
 8 Dante, Virgil, Sordello, Nino and Corrado. 
 
 6 An allusion to the tragic story of the transforming of 
 Progne into a swallow, and Philomela into a nightingale. 
 
 1 Mount Ida, from which Ganymede was snatched by an 
 eagle and carried to Olympus to be the Gods' cupbearer. 
 
 * The sphere of fire. 
 
 'The morning of Easter Monday.
 
 DANTE 171 
 
 we are at a good point. Hold not back, but put 
 forth all your might. You are now arrived at Pur- 
 gatory ; see yonder the rampart that hems it in ; see 
 yonder the entrance, there where it appears divided. 
 Short time since, in the dawn that precedes the day, 
 when you were asleep, and lying upon the flowers 
 which deck the valley down below, a lady came, and 
 said: 'I am Lucia; let me take up this one who is 
 sleeping ; thus will I speed him on his way/ Sordello 
 and the other noble shades remained. She lifted you 
 up, and, so soon as the day brightened, she mounted, 
 and I in her footsteps. Here she put you down. 
 First her lovely eyes directed me to that rift; then 
 she and sleep went away together." 
 
 As a man in doubt, on being reassured, changes 
 fear for confidence, when the truth is made plain to 
 him, so I changed. And when my guide saw that I 
 was no longer anxious, he began to go up along the 
 cliff, and I behind him, toward the height. We 
 drew near and came to a place where, instead of a 
 rift in the wall, I beheld a gate, and below, leading 
 up to it, three steps of divers colors, and a gate- 
 keeper who as yet spoke not a word. And as I 
 fixed my eye more and more upon him, I discovered 
 that he was sitting on the upper step, and that I 
 could not look him in the face. In his hand he held 
 a naked sword which shot back the rays so daz- 
 zlingly that again and again I lifted my eyes in vain. 
 
 "Speak from where you are : What is it that you
 
 172 DANTE 
 
 wish?" he began. "Where is your guide? Give 
 heed lest your going up work you harm." 
 
 "A lady from Heaven, well versed in these 
 things," replied my master, "only just now said to 
 us : 'Go thither, there is the gate/ ' 
 
 "And may she speed your steps to a good end," 
 again began the courteous keeper: "Come forward 
 unto our stairs." 
 
 And so we went to the first great stair. It was of 
 white marble, so smooth and polished that in it I 
 saw myself reflected perfectly. The second was 
 dark purple gray, a rough and scorched stone 
 cracked lengthwise and across. The third, massive 
 and uppermost, appeared to me to be of porphyry as 
 flaming red as blood that spurts from a vein. Oil 
 this the Angel of God had both his feet, sitting upon 
 the threshold which seemed to me to be of adamant. 
 Up the three steps my guide led me with good will, 
 saying : 
 
 "Beseech him humbly to undo the lock." 
 
 Devoutly did I cast myself at the holy feet; I 
 besought him for mercy's sake to open; but first I 
 struck three times upon my breast.' 10 
 
 With the point of his sword he inscribed Seven 
 P's" upon my forehead, then said : 
 
 "To signify his penitence for sins of thought, word and 
 deed. 
 11 They stand for the seven mortal sins, Peccata.
 
 DANTE 173 
 
 "See to it that you wash away these scars when 
 you are inside." 
 
 Ashes, or dry earth, are of the same color as his 
 raiment, from beneath which he drew forth two 
 keys. One was gold and the other silver. 12 First 
 with the white, and then with the yellow, he did to 
 the gate what I desired. 
 
 "Whenever one of these keys fails, so that it does 
 not turn rightly in the lock," he said to us, "this 
 narrow entrance will not open. The one is more 
 precious, but the other requires surpassing skill and 
 wisdom before it unlocks, because it is that which 
 must untangle the knot. 13 From Peter I had them ; 
 and he told me to err rather in opening than in keep- 
 ing shut, provided only the people humble them- 
 selves at my feet." Thereon he pushed open the 
 door of the sacred portal, saying: 
 
 "Enter in, but I warn you that he who looks back 
 must go out again." 
 
 And when the pivots, metal, strong and resonant, 
 of that sacred door turned in their sockets, Tarpeia 
 roared not so loud nor made so harsh a sound when 
 the good Metellus was taken from her, whereby she 
 afterward was impoverished. 14 
 
 M The gold key typifies power to open; the silver, judgment 
 as to whom to open for. 
 
 "The question of a soul's fitness to enter. 
 
 "The Tarpeian rock is here used to signify the Capitoline 
 Hill. The tribune Metellus unsuccessfully defended the temple 
 of Saturn, the public treasury, against Caesar, and the Tarpeian
 
 174 PANTE 
 
 I turned aside to listen to the first sound within 
 and it seemed to me that I heard the words: Te 
 Deum laudamus, set to sweet harmony. What I 
 heard gave me the same impression that we are ac- 
 customed to receive when people are chanting with 
 an organ, inasmuch as at one moment the words 
 are distinguishable, at another, not. 
 
 CANTOS X TO XXVIII 
 
 Purgatory proper. The first ledge of Purgatory, 
 to which Dante and Virgil climb by a precipitous 
 and narrow passage. They find this terrace : 
 
 more lonely than paths through deserts ; 
 and that, in width, it 
 
 would measure thrice the length of a human 
 body. 1 
 
 Before they have begun to walk along it Dante 
 discovers that the wall which rises to the next ledge, 
 
 rock, close by, is said to have echoed the creaking when the 
 doors were torn open. 
 
 5 "We praise thee, O God," is the song of welcome and 
 rejoicing which here celebrates every new arrival, and sig- 
 nifies the joy felt over every single sinner that repenteth. 
 
 1 About eighteen feet wide. This is a striking example of 
 Dante's use of precise and understandable detail by which he 
 again and again bestows the quality of what is real upon the 
 thing that he imagines.
 
 DANTE 175 
 
 really; the face of the second step of the moun- 
 tain, is: 
 
 of white marble, adorned with such sculptures that 
 not only Polycletus, 2 but Nature herself, would 
 have been put to shame thereby. 
 
 These bas-reliefs depict famous instances of hu- 
 mility, drawn, turn by turn, from Biblical and classi- 
 cal sources. The accuracy and affection with which 
 Dante describes them, and the way in which he con- 
 vinces the reader of the tremendous influence of 
 these stories of humility upon souls in the act of 
 purging themselves from the sin of pride are no- 
 table among the mighty as well as the lovely attri- 
 butes of The Comedy. 
 
 "The Angel who came to Earth with the tidings 
 of that peace so many years wept for, which opened 
 Heaven from its long interdict, 3 appeared before 
 us, carved with a sweet attitude, so true to life that 
 he did not seem a dumb show. One would have 
 sworn that he was saying : 'Hail !'* for she too was 
 imaged there who turned the key to open Divine 
 Love. And her action expressed the words, 'Behold 
 the handmaiden of the Lord,' as exactly as a seal is 
 stamped on wax." 
 
 1 A famous Greek sculptor. 
 
 1 It meant that with the coming of Christ salvation was to 
 be again possible for mankind as it had been before the Fall. 
 * "Hail Mary, full of Grace, the Lord is with thee."
 
 176 DANTE 
 
 " 'Do not fix your attention upon one spot only/ ' 
 said my gentle master. At this I moved my eyes 
 and saw, next beyond Mary, another story sculp- 
 tured in the rock, and this was to the right, where 
 my guide stood. Therefore I passed Virgil, and 
 drew near so that it might be directly before me. 
 There on the marble were carved the cart and the 
 oxen drawing the sacred ark, because of which men 
 fear an office not entrusted to them. 
 
 "In front moved seven bands, 6 from whence 
 Confusion fell on me, my sense 
 
 A double answer bringing, 
 
 They are, they are not singing.' 
 The incense steam with like surprise 
 Bewildered both my nose and eyes, 
 
 Discordant message sending. 
 
 For Aye and No contending." 7 
 
 In front of the blessed vessel went the humble 
 Psalmist, girt up and dancing. He was both more 
 and less than a king on that occasion. 8 Opposite, 
 portrayed at the window of a great palace, MichaP 
 was gazing in amazement, with the manner of a lady 
 scornful and disturbed. 
 
 I moved on in order to examine closely another 
 story which, beyond Michal, shone glittering white. 
 Here was chronicled the exalted glory of the Roman 
 
 * See 2 Samuel, vi :4-7. 
 
 * Of people. 
 
 * Shadwell's translation. 
 
 8 More than a king because a priest, and less than a king 
 because he humbled himself by dancing without his royal 
 vestments. 
 
 * The daughter of Saul. For this story see 2 Samuel vi :12-16.
 
 DANTE 177 
 
 prince whose great worth moved Gregory to his 
 tremendous victory. 10 I speak of the Emperor Tra- 
 jan; and a poor woman was at his bridle, shown 
 weeping and in grief: Round about him it seemed 
 trampled and thronged with knights, and above him 
 the golden eagles seemed moving in the wind. The 
 woman among all these appeared to be saying: "My 
 Lord, avenge me for my son who is dead, whereat 
 I am broken-hearted." And he to answer her: 
 "Wait until I return." And she like one in whom 
 grief is impatient: "But, my Lord, if you do not 
 return?" And he: "He who shall be in my place 
 will do it for you." And she : "What will another's 
 good deed profit you, if you forget your own?" 
 Whereon he: "Be comforted, for I must do my 
 duty ere I go : justice demands it, and pity holds me 
 back." 
 
 While Dante is absorbed in looking at these 
 sculptured stories, Virgil calls his attention to a 
 group of shades advancing. These are the spirits 
 of the Proud, moving slowly because of heavy 
 weights which they were carrying on their backs. 
 Bent almost double, in contrast to the lofty bearing 
 they had maintained on Earth they seem scarcely to 
 be men. 
 
 10 The legend referred to is that which records how Pope 
 Gregory the Great, because of Trajan's justice and clemency, 
 besought God to take the Emperor's shade out of Hell. That 
 God acceded to this prayer was Gregory's victory.
 
 178 DANTE 
 
 CANTO XI 
 
 The canto opens with a paraphrase of the Lord's 
 Prayer, which the shades of the Proud are reciting. 
 It closes with the petition: 
 
 "Our strength, which is easily overcome, put not 
 to proof with the old adversary, but deliver us from 
 him who so assails it. 
 
 "This last prayer, dear Lord, is not indeed made 
 for ourselves, for it is not needed, but for those who 
 have remained behind." 1 
 
 Virgil says to the shades : 
 
 "So may justice and mercy soon lighten you of 
 your burdens that, in accord with your desire, you 
 may have power to move the wing that shall bear 
 you on high, show us on which side the shortest 
 path to the stairway lies ; and if there is more than 
 one passage, point out to us that which is least 
 steep; for he who goes with me, because still bur- 
 dened with the flesh of Adam, is chary, against his 
 will, of climbing." 
 
 It was impossible to see from which one of them 
 the answer came, 2 but it was : 
 
 1 In Purgatory the Devil has no power to tempt. They pray 
 for those in Ante-Purgatory, and the living upon Earth. It 
 must constantly be borne in mind that Dante recognized 
 Pride as his own besetting sin. Wherever he meets with it he 
 is specially affected. 
 
 1 Because their faces were so bowed down.
 
 DANTE 179 
 
 "Come with us to the right hand along the bank 
 and you will find the passage by which it is possible 
 for a living person to ascend." 
 
 The shade who has just spoken then goes on to 
 tell Dante who he was, one Omberto, "son of a 
 great Tuscan," and immediately afterward, realiz- 
 ing that he had been guilty of pride in this mention 
 of his father, asks Dante if he had ever heard of 
 his father as an act of humility. Another shade 
 now makes himself known. 
 
 Listening, I bent down my face; and one of them, 
 not he who had been speaking, managed to twist 
 round under the weight that hampered him, and 
 saw me, and recognized me, and called out, keeping 
 his eyes with difficulty fixed on me, who, bent over, 
 was going along with them. 
 
 "Oh," said I to him, "are you not Oderisi, 8 the 
 honor of Gubbio, and of that art which in Paris is 
 called illuminating?" 
 
 "Brother," said he, "the leaves which Franco of 
 
 * This is an exceedingly interesting passage, being, as it is, an 
 expression of the attitude of Dante and his age toward the 
 then reviving art of painting. Oderisi was a famous minia- 
 turist who worked at Bologna and Rome. He took pride in 
 his own skill as a painter, and here in Purgatory he shows his 
 penitence by owning to his rival's, Franco's superiority. The 
 passage, ending as it does with Giotto, is true to the fact, 
 namely, that Italian painting was at this time making rapid 
 advance toward the perfection with which it crowned .itself 
 during the Renaissance. The general idea of this passage 
 and the subsequent history of painting are embodied per- 
 fectly in Ruskin's saying that in art Giotto uttered burning 
 words of prophecy with the stammering lips of infancy.
 
 180 DANTE 
 
 Bologna paints are fairer to look upon; the honor 
 now is all his, and mine only in part. Truly I 
 should not have been so generous while I lived, be- 
 cause of the overwhelming wish to excel, on which 
 my heart was set. For such pride the penalty is 
 paid here ; and moreover I should not be here, were 
 it not that while I still was free to sin, I turned to 
 God. Oh, vain-glory of human powers, how little 
 while does your reputation last at its height, if it 
 is not followed by an inferior generation"! Cimabue 
 thought to hold the field in painting, and now Giotto 
 gets the applause, so that the other's fame is eclipsed. 
 In like manner one Guido* has wrested from the 
 other the glory of our language, and mayhap one 
 is already born who shall supplant them both. 
 iWorldly fame is naught but a gust of wind, which 
 blows now this way, now that, and changes name 
 as it shifts quarter. Will your reputation be might- 
 ier a thousand years hence, if you leave your flesh 
 in old age, than if you had died before putting 
 away childish things ; in a thousand years, which to 
 eternity is a shorter span than the twinkling of an 
 eye? Your fame is as the color of the grass, that 
 comes and goes ; the very heat that brought it forth 
 from the earth withers it." 
 
 4 Two poets of the age, one of whom outdid the other, even 
 as Giotto outdid Cimabue. The third poet referred to is 
 Dante, which reference is itself, of course, an act of pride and 
 quite in keeping with what Dante evidently regarded as his 
 own besetting sin.
 
 DANTE 181 
 
 And I to him : "The truth of your words breeds 
 blessed humility in my heart and lessens my swollen 
 pride." 
 
 CANTO XII 
 
 Virgil bids Dante leave the shade with whom he 
 is conversing and make greater haste. 
 
 I straightened up once more as is necessary for 
 walking, although my thoughts remained bowed 
 down and humble. 
 
 VTRGIU 
 
 "Turn your eyes downward; it will be well for 
 you, in order to beguile the way, to examine the 
 pavement beneath your feet." 
 
 This proves to be inlaid and carved with notable 
 stories of humility, which in their scheme, purpose 
 and surpassing lifelikeness the work of God ex- 
 ceeding that of the greatest human genius is the 
 idea are counterparts of the bas-reliefs on the wall 
 which Dante looked at in Canto X. 
 
 On one side I saw him 1 who was created more 
 noble than any other creature, falling like lightning 
 
 1 Satan. "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from Heaven." 
 St. Luke x :18.
 
 .182 PANTE 
 
 from Heaven. On the other I saw Briareus 2 struck 
 by a bolt lying in the chill of death, a dead weight 
 on the ground. 
 
 I saw Nimrod at the foot of his great undertak- 
 ing 3 as though bewildered, and looking at the people 
 who had been proud with him in Shinar. 
 
 I saw Troy in ashes and in ruins; O Ilion, how 
 cast down and abject did that carving make you 
 appear ! 
 
 Dante, after a long enumeration of similar scenes, 
 comments upon their wonderful perfection as works 
 of art. 
 
 .What master of the brush, or of the sculptor's 
 tool, could reproduce the shadows and the lines 
 which here would dumfound the greatest genius. 
 Dead seemed the dead, and the living seemed alive. 
 [Whoever beheld the actual events saw them not 
 more clearly than I, on so much of the pavement as 
 I went over, bent down to look. Now give rein to 
 your pride, and go your way with haughty bearing, 
 you sons of Eve, and turn your eyes not downward 
 so as to see your evil path ! 
 
 Suddenly Virgil says : 
 
 "Lift up your face; there is no more time for 
 
 1 One of the giants who, according to the legend, attempted 
 to usurp the power of Jupiter, a classical counterpart of the 
 Biblical story of Lucifer. 
 
 "The tower of Babel. Gen. xi :4.
 
 DANTE 183 
 
 such abstraction. See yonder an angel who is mak- 
 ing ready to come toward us. See how the sixth 
 hand maiden of the day is returning. 4 With rever- 
 ence adorn your acts and face so that it may please 
 him to direct us upward. Remember that this day 
 never dawns again." 
 
 The beautiful creature came toward us, clothed 
 in white, and on his countenance a light such as that 
 of the tremulous morning star. He opened his arms 
 and spread his wings, and said : 
 
 "Come : the stairway 5 is close at hand ; from now 
 on the going up is easy. Few indeed are they whoi 
 hear these tidings. O human race, born to fly up- 
 ward, why do you fall before such slight gusts of 
 wind?" 6 ' 
 
 He led us to where the rock was cleft; then 
 brushed my forehead with his wings; 7 then prom- 
 ised me safe passage. 
 
 As Dante and Virgil turn to this opening, which 
 proved to be narrow and steep, but less so than the 
 one lower down, they heard voices chanting : 
 
 4 It is close upon noon, six hours of the day having passed. 
 
 "The way of ascent to the next terrace. 
 
 'The slightest breath of the wind of temptation, in this 
 case a gust of pride. 
 
 T By this operation one of the P's is removed ; symbolically 
 he is now cleansed from the first of the seven deadly sins, 
 namely. Pride. This same method is used to remove the 
 other six the method really applied to penitent souls in their 
 progress through Purgatory, and to Dante, in appearance 
 only, so that he may learn what the system of purgation is 
 like.
 
 184 DANTE 
 
 "Blessed are the meek in spirit" with such sweet- 
 ness as can not be portrayed by words. Ah me! 
 how unlike are the approaches here to those of Hell ; 
 for here one enters with songs, and there with angry 
 wailings. 
 
 Already we were going up the holy stairs, and it 
 seemed to me that I was lighter far than I had felt 
 myself even upon the plain, because of which I said : 
 
 "Master, tell me, what heavy thing has been lifted 
 from me, so that I feel almost no fatigue as I go 
 forward ?" 
 
 VIRGIL 
 
 "When the P's which remain now faintly marked 8 
 upon your brow shall all be as one is, wholly erased, 
 your feet will be so driven by good will that not 
 only shall they feel no fatigue, but it shall be a de- 
 light to them to press upward." 
 
 Then I did like those who have something on their 
 head of which they are unaware, unless the signs 9 
 made by others arouse their suspicions; because of 
 which the hand is used to learn the truth, and by 
 feeling about finds out what it is, and so does what 
 the eye can not do. With the fingers of my right 
 hand spread wide I found only six of the letters 
 which he who held the keys had stamped upon my 
 temples ; seeing which my leader smiled. 
 
 8 Erasing the P, or sin of Pride, has made the other six P's 
 faint, for Pride, the first root of sin, being removed, the others 
 fend to vanish. 
 
 * Staring, pointing or laughter.
 
 DANTE J85 
 
 CANTOS XIII TO XV 
 CANTO XIII 
 
 second terrace, where the sin of Envy is 
 purged away. Coming out upon this ledge Dante 
 remarks it to be of less size than that of the Proud. 
 
 No figure is there, nor imagery ; thus the terrace 
 wall appears bare, and thus the floor with only the 
 livid hue 1 of the stone. 
 
 No shades are to be seen and Virgil prays to the 
 Sun, always the symbol of God's illuminating grace, 
 for guidance. 
 
 We had gone on, because of our willingness, in 
 short time, as far as on Earth is counted for a mile, 
 when toward us we heard flying, but did not see, 
 spirits uttering kindly invitations to the table of love. 
 The first voice which passed proclaimed loudly : 
 
 "They have no wine." 2 
 
 And before it had gone entirely out of hearing 
 distance another passed by, crying : 
 
 a The symbolic color of Envy. 
 
 'John ii:3. The words of Mary at the marriage in Cana. 
 and put into the angel's mouth here because suggestive of 
 thoughtful care for others, the very opposite of what envy 
 produces.
 
 186 DANTE 
 
 "I am Orestes," 3 and it also did not stay. 
 "O Father," said I, "what voices are these?" and 
 even as I was asking, lo ! the third, saying : 
 "Love them from whom you have had evil." 
 
 VIRGIL 
 
 "This circle scourges the sin of Envy, and there- 
 fore the lashes of the scourge are drawn from love. 
 The curb* must be of a different sound; I think, 
 relying on my own judgment, that you will hear 
 it before you reach the gate of pardon. 6 But let 
 your eyes search steadfastly through the air, and 
 you will see people sitting in front of us, each 
 against the cliff." 
 
 Thereupon I opened my eyes wider than before, 
 and, looking in front of me, saw shades clad in 
 cloaks colored not unlike the stone. One was sup- 
 porting the other with his shoulder, and all were 
 leaning against the cliff. As the sun does not profit 
 the blind, so to the shades in that place the light of 
 Heaven wills not to be liberal of itself, for an iron 
 wire pierces the eyelids of them all. It seemed to 
 me that I was committing an outrage walking about, 
 
 'The words of Pylades, when he represented himself as 
 Orestes in order to be put to death in his stead. A classical 
 instance of one willing "to lay down his life for his friends." 
 
 4 Curb, here, means harsh words intended to be a deterrent 
 from sin. 
 
 6 The stairway or passage of ascent to the next ledge, not 
 taken until the P of Envy has been erased.
 
 DANTE 187 
 
 looking at others, myself unseen." Their tears were 
 so pressed out that their cheeks were wet. I turned 
 to them and said : 
 
 "O folk assured of beholding the Light on high, 
 which is the sole object of your desire, may grace 
 speedily dissolve the scum upon your consciences so 
 that memory shall flow through them in clear 
 stream, 7 tell me, for it will be precious and accept- 
 able to me, if there is any Italian shade among you 
 here. Perchance, too, it will work good for him 
 
 if I learn it." 
 
 i 
 
 The shade of Sapia, a Sienese lady of rank, an- 
 swers : 
 
 "Each of us is a citizen of one true city, but you 
 mean one who dwelt in Italy while he was a pil- 
 grim. 8 I was more joyful over other's harm than 
 my own good fortune." 
 
 * It would be hard to find among the many things which 
 Dante, as it were, lets drop concerning kindness, considerate- 
 ness for others, in a word, courtesy, a comment more char- 
 acteristic than this; comment more thoroughly descriptive of 
 his own ideal of what a gentleman should be one who would 
 never out of idle curiosity stare into the closed eyes of a blind 
 man, at a cripple, or into the face of a corpse. 
 
 'As a stream cleansed of all impurities, such memory be- 
 comes, after a shade has undergone the cleansing torments of 
 Purgatory. 
 
 ' Psalm cxix :54. "Thy statutes have been my songs in the 
 house of my pilgrimage." Heb. xi :13, "strangers and pil- 
 grims on the earth." The same, v. 16 (God), "hath prepared 
 for them a city." Also, see Ephesians, ii:19, and Heb. xiii:14.
 
 188 DANTE 
 
 To prove which Sapia goes on : 
 
 "When I was past middle age, my fellow citizens 
 had joined battle with their enemies near Colle, and 
 I prayed God for that which He willed. They 10 
 were routed and turned to the bitter difficulties of 
 retreat ; and I, watching the pursuit, experienced a 
 joy unequaled by any other, crying out to God, 
 'Hence forth I do not fear Thee.' In my last hour 
 I sought peace with Him, and even yet my debt 
 would not have been lessened by penitence, had not 
 Pier Pettinagno, who in charity was sorry for me, 
 remembered me in his holy prayers." 11 
 
 CANTO XIV 
 
 Here, with other shades doing penance for their 
 sins of Envy, Dante meets Guido del Duca, of whose 
 history little or nothing is known, but of whose 
 character in one terse line Dante has drawn a con- 
 summate portrait of envy at its worst. It is one of 
 those portraits which are unforgettable. 
 
 "I am Guido del Duca. My blood was so con- 
 sumed by envy that had I seen a man becoming 
 
 * A fortress near Siena. The battle was in 1269. 
 
 10 The Sienese, her own countrymen of whom she was 
 envious and over whose misfortune she rejoiced. 
 
 "This man was of the humblest tradesmen, a maker of 
 combs, whose honesty of word and deed got him a great 
 reputation. Sapia at one time gave him alms and for that 
 he remembered her.
 
 DANTE 189, 
 
 happy, you would have seen me covered with the 
 hue of spite. I reap that which I sowed. O human 
 race ! why set you your heart on those things which 
 exclude friendship." 1 
 
 When Dante has done talking with the shades in 
 this group, and he and Virgil are once more alone, 
 the invisible voices of the air again speed past them, 
 saying : 
 
 "Every one that findeth me shall slay me," 2 and 
 rolled away like thunder when a storm-cloud is sud- 
 denly rent. Soon as it had gone beyond our hear- 
 ing, another with so tremendous a clap that it was 
 like the thunder which comes in the same instant 
 as the lightning: "I am Aglauros who was turned 
 into a stone." 3 At this, in order to be close to the 
 poet, I took a step backward instead of forward. 
 The air, now grown still on every side, he said 
 to me: 
 
 "That was the harsh curb* which ought to keep a 
 man within bounds. But you mortals swallow the 
 bait, so that the hook of the old adversary drags 
 you to him, and for this reason neither restraint 
 
 1 Longfellow translates this question and exclamation : 
 "O human racel why dost thou set thy heart 
 Where interdict of partnership must be?" 
 
 *Gen. iv:14. 
 
 8 Aglauros, envious of her sister, Herse, was changed into 
 a stone. 
 
 *Scc Note 4, Canto XIII.
 
 190 DANTE 
 
 nor summons avail. Heaven calls you, and revolves 
 around you, displaying its eternal beauties to you, 
 and yet your eye looks only on the ground. This 
 is why He who sees all things scourges you." 
 
 CANTO xv 
 
 The poets are approaching the ascent to the third 
 terrace, and the sun is near its setting. Dante, daz- 
 zled by the light, is convinced that it is more intense 
 than usual. Holding his hands to his eyes he can 
 not shut it out. He says : 
 
 "What is that, dear father, from which I can 
 not screen my eyes so that I can see, and which 
 seems to be moving toward us?" 
 
 "Be not surprised if the inhabitants of Heaven 
 still dazzle you," he replied. "It is a messenger that 
 comes to invite us to go up. It will soon be so that 
 your eyes will have no difficulty in gazing at such 
 sights, but you will find it a delight as great as Na- 
 ture has made you capable of experiencing." 
 
 So soon as we had come near to the blessed Angel, 
 with joyful voice, he said : 
 
 "Enter here upon a stairway much less steep than 
 the others." 
 
 We had begun to mount, having left the place 
 where we were, 1 when we heard sung behind us, 
 
 1 The terrace of the Envious.
 
 DANTE 191 
 
 "Blessed are the merciful," and "Rejoice them that 
 overcomest." 
 
 As they are climbing the stairs to the third ter- 
 race Dante says to Virgil : 
 
 "What did the shade mean in speaking of the ex- 
 clusion of friendship?" 2 
 
 Wherefore he to me : "Because your aspirations 
 are directed to those things 3 which through sharing 
 are lessened, Envy moves the bellows for your sighs. 4 
 But if the love of highest Heaven turned your de- 
 sires upward, that fear 5 would not be in your breast ; 
 for the more there are up there who say, 'Ours,' so 
 much the more of good does each one possess, and 
 so much the more of love burns in those mansions." 6 
 
 "I am further from being satisfied," said I, "than 
 if I had kept silent, and more doubt gathers in my 
 
 1 Canto XIV, Note 1. 
 
 *The things of the world; money and goods. 
 4 It means that envy furnishes the breath for sighs, which 
 are the sign of the envy felt by one who has divided his pos- 
 sessions and hence no longer has the whole. Then follows a 
 remarkable discourse on the sharing of good, and the making 
 and preserving of friendship, which Bacon said doubled joy 
 and cut sorrow in two. 
 6 Of sharing. 
 
 * "Since good, the more 
 Communicated, the more abundant grows." 
 
 Milton, Paradise Lost, v. 73. 
 "True love in this differs from gold and clay 
 That to divide is not to take away." 
 
 Shelley. 
 
 The greater the number to enjoy the bliss of Heaven the 
 greater u the sum of bliss to be enjoyed.
 
 192 DANTE 
 
 mind. How can it be that a good distributed makes 
 more possessors richer than if it be owned by a 
 few?" 
 
 And he to me : "Because you fix your mind only 
 on earthly things, you gather darkness from light it- 
 self. That infinite and ineffable Good which is on 
 high, runs to love as a sunbeam to a lucid body. 7 
 It gives itself as much as it finds zeal for the gift, 
 so that in whatever measure love exists, the more 
 does the Eternal Glory spread over it. And the 
 more there are who fix their hearts on high, the 
 more there are to exert love, and the more of love 
 there is, and, like a mirror, one reflects it to the 
 other. If my argument does not satisfy your crav- 
 ing, you shall see Beatrice, and she will completely 
 answer this, and every other question that troubles 
 you. Strive only that soon the five remaining P's 
 be healed, by penitence, as two already are." 
 
 As I was on the point of saying: "You sat- 
 isfy me," I saw that I had reached the next cir- 
 cle, so that my eager eyes made me keep quiet. 8 
 There it seemed to me that I was rapt in an 
 ecstatic vision, and that I saw many people in 
 a temple, and at the threshold a Lady, with the 
 
 T The love of God is given to men in such degree as they 
 have power to receive it, just as light makes objects bright in 
 proportion as they can receive it into themselves and so be- 
 come brilliant. 
 
 8 His keenness for new sights kept him from spending fur- 
 ther time in talk.
 
 DANTE 193 
 
 gentle manner of a mother, saying: "My son, why 
 hast thou thus dealt with us? Behold thy father 
 and I have sought thee sorrowing." And as she 
 ceased speaking the vision disappeared. 
 
 Then I beheld another lady, her cheeks wet with 
 the tears which grief distils when it comes of deep 
 resentment against others. She was saying: "If 
 you are lord of the city 9 about whose name there 
 was such contention among the gods, the city 
 whence shines forth all wisdom, avenge yourself, 
 O Pisistratus, on those bold arms which embraced 
 our daughter.*' 10 And her lord appeared kind and 
 gentle, and to answer her, with temperate look : 
 
 "What shall we do to those who wish us ill if we 
 condemn those who love us ?" 
 
 Next I saw people enflamed with the fire of anger, 
 slaying a young man 11 with stones, and crying 
 loudly to one another, "Kill! Kill!" And I saw 
 him bowed down by death, which was already upon 
 him, yet even in such straits his eyes continued to 
 implore Heaven, praying to the Almighty Lord, 
 with the look which begets compassion, that He 
 would forgive his persecutors. 
 
 These three visions are, of course, introduced to 
 
 B Athens. 
 
 "A young man in love with the daughter of Pisistratus 
 kissed her in public, whereat the mother of the girl begged 
 her husband, Lord of Athens, to have the young man pun- 
 
 * 1 i 
 
 ished. 
 u St. Stephen. Acts vii :54 et seq.
 
 194 DANTE 
 
 display notable instances of forgiveness, the opposite 
 virtue to the vice of anger, which this terrace pun- 
 ishes. The visions also provide the stage means, 
 in the narrative, by which Dante is conveyed from 
 the terrace of Envy to that of Anger. 
 
 We were moving on through the vesper time, 
 peering forward into the face of the late and daz-- 
 zling sunbeams as far as our eyes could reach, when 
 of a sudden, little by little, a smoke, dark as night, 
 came rolling toward us ; nor was there any place of 
 shelter. It blinded our eyes and choked us. 
 
 CANTOS XVI AND XVII 
 CANTO XVI 
 
 The third terrace. The darkness and bitterness 
 of anger, of wrath in the heart of man, is here sym- 
 bolized by dense smoke, the result of burning, liter- 
 ally; figuratively, the befogging and taking away of 
 good understanding. Like anger, smoke is irritat- 
 ing to the senses. 
 
 Gloom of Hell, or of night unlit by a single star, 
 beneath a poor sky, as darkened by clouds as possi- 
 ble, never made for my eyes so dense a veil, or one 
 of such rough quality to feel, as the smoke which 
 there enveloped us. In it one could not keep his
 
 DANTE 195 
 
 eyes open. Because of which my wise and faithful 
 guide came close to my side and offered me his 
 shoulder. Even as a blind man goes behind his es- 
 cort, in order not to lose his way, or run into any 
 thing which might hurt or kill him, so I went 
 through that bitter and foul air, listening to my 
 leader, who said only : "Take heed not to get sep- 
 arated from me." 
 
 I heard voices, and each of them seemed to be 
 praying for peace and mercy to the Lamb of God 
 that taketh away sins. "Lamb of God," was their 
 only beginning. They kept perfect unison of word 
 and measure, so that there was the appearance of 
 entire agreement among them. 1 
 
 "Master," said I, "are they spirits that I hear?" 
 And he to me: 
 
 "You apprehend rightly, and they go loosening 
 the knot of anger." 
 
 A conversation between Dante and one of the 
 shades follows, and Dante asks the way, and the 
 name of him who tells it. 
 
 "I was a Lombard, and was called Marco. I 
 knew the world, and I loved that virtue, at which 
 nowadays no one aims. 2 For mounting upward, you 
 
 1 The opposite of that discord of words and tone where the 
 angry are quarreling. 
 
 2 Toward which at present every one has unbent his bow : 
 DO one aims at virtue with the bow of desire.
 
 196 DANTE 
 
 are holding the right course." This was his answer; 
 then he added : 
 
 "I pray you, to pray for me, when you shall be on 
 high." 
 
 DANTE 
 
 "I give you my word that I will do what you de- 
 sire." 
 
 He then goes on to ask Marco the cause why the 
 world is so full of vice, saying that one man ascribes 
 it to the influence of the stars, and another to orig- 
 inal sin. Marco then discourses on these matters in 
 a wonderfully interesting and clear fashion; a dis- 
 course, really, on the freedom of the will that cor- 
 ner-stone of Dante's faith and philosophy. 
 
 MARCO 
 
 "Brother, the world is blind, and truly you are of 
 it. You on Earth ascribe every cause upward to the 
 heavens 8 only, as if they of necessity governed all 
 things. Were this so, free will would be destroyed 
 in you, and there would be no justice in having joy 
 for good, and grief for evil. The heavens do give 
 the first impulse 4 to your actions, I do not say to 
 all of them; but supposing I did say so, light has 
 been given you to distinguish between right and 
 wrong, and free will, which, though it may grow 
 
 1 To the influence of the stars. 
 4 At birth.
 
 DANTE 197 
 
 weary in its first resistance to the heavens, finally, 
 if it is but nourished well, overcomes everything. 5 
 Though free to choose, you are subject to a greater 
 power and to a better nature, and this is what cre- 
 ates in you the mind which the stars can not control. 
 Therefore, if the present generation goes wrong, the 
 cause is in you, and in you it must be sought. Of 
 this I will now be a true expounder. 
 
 "Forth from the hand of Him who delights in it 
 before even it exists, like a small maid that cries 
 and laughs in baby play, issues the little soul, so 
 simple that it knows nothing save that, proceeding 
 from a glad Maker, it turns eagerly to whatever 
 gives it pleasure. At first it tastes the savor of 
 trivial good, and, deceived by this, runs after it, if 
 guide or bridle do not check its inclination. 6 Hence 
 it was necessary to establish law as a restraining 
 curb; needful to have a king who should at least 
 discern the tower of the true city. 7 The laws exist, 
 but who administers them? No one. Wherefore 
 easily may you perceive that evil government is the 
 cause of the world's guilt, and not that nature is 
 
 * As a man by right care and persistence may overcome the 
 tendency to disease, say consumption, inherited or acquired, 
 so might a man, by exercise of will, overcome the influences 
 which the stars at birth exerted over him. 
 
 *The child at first attracted by trivial good, pursues it if no 
 one shows it the difference between this and lasting good ; 
 in a word, the difference between the things which please the 
 senses for the passing moment, and the things which are 
 precious and lasting. 
 
 'The city of God, the tower or bulwark of which is justice.
 
 198 DANTE 
 
 corrupt in you. 8 Rome, 9 which made the world 
 good, was used to have two Suns, 10 which lighted 
 up both one road and the other; that of the world, 
 and that of God. One has extinguished the other. 
 The sword is joined to the crozier, 11 and being 
 joined, both must of necessity go wrong, because 
 one no longer fears the other. If you do not believe 
 me, consider the fruit 12 for by it every plant is 
 known. 
 
 "May God be with you ! I bear you company no 
 farther. Behold the brightness already glistening 
 white through the smoke. I must depart the An- 
 gel is there before he sees me." 13 
 
 So he turned back, and would no longer hear me. 
 
 CANTO XVII 
 
 The sun is setting as the poets come out of the 
 smoke. Dante has another ecstatic dream in which 
 he is shown instances of the results of anger. He is 
 wakened by a light far brighter than that which the 
 sun sheds on Earth. 
 
 8 Not original sin. 
 
 9 Rome reformed the world by its law and order; its good 
 government. 
 
 10 Pope and Emperor, a spiritual and a temporal ruler. 
 "The crook, symbol of the Pope's shepherding of the 
 
 faithful. 
 
 "The passage means, behold the result, the fearful condi- 
 tion into which Italy has now fallen. 
 
 13 Marco's time is not yet up for the ledge of WratK
 
 ^ DANTE 199 
 
 I was turning to see where I was, when a voice 
 said : "Here is the ascent." And my master said : 
 "This is a divine spirit who, unasked, is directing us 
 how to go up, and in his own light hides himself. 
 He deals with us as a man does with himself, for 
 he who sees the need, and waits to be asked, is al- 
 ready preparing to refuse. Let us make our steps 
 accord with such an invitation; let us hasten to as- 
 cend before it grows dark, for after that it would 
 not be possible, until the day returns." 
 
 As soon as I was on the first step, 1 I felt the mo- 
 tion of a wing close by me, and a fanning on my 
 face, and I heard : 
 
 "Blessed are the peacemakers, who are without 
 sinful anger." 
 
 Already the fading light of the setting sun was 
 so high above us 2 that the stars were twinkling all 
 around us. 
 
 "O my strength, what is it makes you melt 
 away?" I said to myself, for I felt that there was no 
 power left in my legs. We were now at the top of 
 the stair, and were motionless, like a ship when it has 
 reached the shore. For a time I listened if I might 
 hear anything in the new circle. Then I turned to 
 my master, and said : 
 
 4 
 
 "Dear father, tell me what vice is purged on the 
 
 1 Of the stairway to the next terrace. 
 
 *To be seen only where caught by the peak of the moun- 
 tain as it roee high above them.
 
 200 DANTE , 
 
 terrace where we now are. If our feet be stopped, 
 let not your speech." 
 
 This is the ledge of the slothful. Virgil tells 
 Dante that the mere love of what is good, passive 
 love, is really sin the sin of sloth; i. e., love, in- 
 active, or, not pursuing its object with all its 
 strength. He then goes on to show how love, or 
 desire, is the seed of every good and evil act, per- 
 formed by man. 
 
 "Neither Creator nor creature," he began, "was 
 ever without love, either natural, or of the mind, 8 
 and this you know. The natural is always without 
 error; but the other may err because of an evil ob- 
 ject, 4 or from want of zeal, or too much zeal. While 
 love is directed on the highest goods, 8 and with 
 moderation upon others, 6 it can not be the cause of 
 sinful pleasure. But when it is set on evil, 7 or pur- 
 sues what "is good with more zeal or less than it 
 ought, 8 then against the Creator his own creature is 
 working. Hence you may understand how love 
 must be the seed of all your virtues, as well as of 
 every action that deserves punishment." 
 
 "This love, or longing, is either inherent in the human be- 
 ing, as the longing or desire for food on the part of an infant, 
 or it is a desire which results from the rational or reasoning, 
 faculty of the mind. 
 
 *As its aim. 
 
 8 God, and the things of Heaven. 
 
 6 The things of the world. 
 
 ' Has desire for what is bad. 
 
 8 Pursues spiritual good too little, or worldly good, too much.
 
 DANTE 201 
 
 CANTO XVIII 
 
 The fourth terrace. Virgil continues to discourse 
 on love and free will. He says to Dante : 
 
 "The mind, created prone to love, turns readily to 
 anything that pleases it, so soon as pleasure rouses 
 it to action. Your faculty of apprehension draws 
 an image from a real object, and displays it within 
 you, so that it makes the mind turn to it. 1 If, thus 
 turned, the mind inclines toward the image, that in- 
 clination is love." 
 
 Dante is satisfied with this definition, but tells 
 Virgil that he does not understand how, since in life 
 objects for love are offered on all sides, and since 
 the soul is endowed, at its creation, with a propen- 
 sity for loving, how, these conditions holding true, 
 man deserves praise or blame for loving. 
 
 VIRGIL 
 
 "As far as reason is able to see I can explain to 
 
 *Of imagination Shakespeare says, Midsummer Night's 
 Dream, v. 1, 
 
 "If it would but apprehend some joy 
 
 It comprehends some bringer of that joy." 
 
 Through the agency of the senses, an idea or image, based 
 upon some reality of life, is presented to the mind. If the 
 mind turns enthusiastically to this, the turning is love.
 
 202 DANTE 
 
 you. Beyond this you must look to Beatrice, for 
 then it becomes a matter of faith. 2 The essence of 
 man's nature, 3 which is distinct from matter, yet 
 joined to it, has a certain inherent power which is 
 not to be recognized unless it is in operation, nor 
 shows itself save by its effect, as life in plants by 
 green leaves. This is why man does not know 
 whence his first instincts come, nor whence his first 
 appetites, which are in him just as the instinct to 
 make honey is in the bee, and this first choice can 
 not merit praise or censure. 4 Now in order that 
 with this first choice all others may be harmonized, 
 you are given reason, and it should govern your 
 decisions. 5 This is the ground of your deserts, ac- 
 cording as you gather in and winnow good and evil 
 desires. Those who in reasoning went to the bot- 
 tom of this subject 6 took careful heed of this innate 
 freedom of the will, and, as a result, they gave 
 morals to the world. If we assume then, that every 
 desire which you have comes of necessity, in you 
 exists also the power to check it. This noble fac- 
 ulty Beatrice understands as free will, and therefore 
 
 2 A matter that transcends the highest reach of human 
 reason and therefore not to be grasped or explained by Virgil. 
 
 * The form essential part. 
 
 * See Canto XVII. 
 
 e Man is given the right to choose, freedom of the will, and 
 reason, by which to decide what course, or thing, he will 
 choose ; hence his accountability for his choice, and for the 
 acts, which represent his choice. 
 
 * Aristotle, Plato, and the ancient philosophers generally.
 
 DANTE 203 
 
 see that you bear it in mind if she begins to speak of 
 it to you." 7 
 
 For a time Dante grows drowsy, and then is re- 
 called to his full senses by throngs of shades ad- 
 vancing and moving with great rapidity. 
 
 They were soon upon us because the whole vast 
 crowd was moving at a run ; and two in front cried 
 out, weeping : "Mary ran in haste unto the hill coun- 
 try; 8 and Caesar, to subdue Ilerda, whirled down 
 upon Marseilles, and then darted away to Spain." 9 
 
 "Haste! Haste! that you waste no time because 
 of lukewarm love ;" the others, following, cried : 
 "So that zeal for right doing may again make grace 
 green." 10 
 
 Virgil asks them the way to the stairs leading to 
 the next terrace, and one answers : 
 
 "Follow us and you will find the opening. We 
 are so filled with the desire to move on that we can 
 
 ' In Paradise, V. 19, et seq., Beatrice says : "The greatest 
 gift which God in His generosity bestowed in creating, and 
 that which most conforms to His own goodness, and that 
 which He sets most store by, was the freedom of the will, 
 with which the creatures that have intelligence, they all and 
 they only were and are endowed." 
 
 Luke i. 39. 
 
 'These instances of zeal are here recited by those whose 
 sin has been sloth. 
 
 "Revive grace which through their negligence or sloth has 
 withered.
 
 204 DANTE 
 
 not pause; but pardon us, if you should take what 
 is our duty, to be a lack of courtesy." 
 
 When the shades have gone far ahead Dante 
 again grows drowsy, and at last : 
 
 I closed my eyes in a reverie, and my meditation 
 was changed into a dream. 
 
 CANTO XX 
 
 The fifth terrace. On it Dante finds Hugh Capet, 
 who talks about the avarice of his descendants. 
 
 We had already departed from him and were 
 striving to cover as much ground as our strength 
 would allow, when I felt the mountain tremble, like 
 a thing that is falling, at which such a chill came 
 over me as comes to him who is going to his death. 
 Surely Delos did not shake so violently before La- 
 tona made her nest in it to give birth to the twin 
 eyes of Heaven. 1 Then from all sides rose up so 
 loud a cry that my master drew nearer to me, say- 
 ing : "Have no fear so long as I guide you." 
 
 "Glory to God in the highest," 2 all were saying, 
 so far as I could make out from those near enough 
 for me to distinguish their words. We stood still, 
 and in suspense, like the shepherds who first heard 
 
 1 Apollo and Diana, the Sun and the Moon. 
 
 a And on earth peace, good will toward men. Luke ii. 14.
 
 DANTE 205 
 
 that song, until the trembling ceased, and the hymn 
 was done. Then we resumed our sacred journey, 
 looking at the shades lying on the ground, now re- 
 turned to their accustomed lament. Never, if my 
 memory errs not, did ignorance of any subject make 
 me so keen to know as I became when I began to 
 think about this thing. Nor, because of our haste, 
 did I dare ask; nor, of myself, could I discover any- 
 thing, so I went on, timid and thoughtful. 
 
 CANTO XXI 
 
 The poets are now met by a shade who says : "My 
 brothers, may God give you peace." 
 
 VIRGIL 
 
 "Tell us, if you know, why just now the mountain 
 shook so, and why, down to its sea-girt foot, all the 
 souls in unison gave forth a shout." 
 
 SHADE 
 
 "The sacred rule 1 of the mountain can experience 
 nothing which is contrary to its regulations, or 
 which is beyond the customary. This place is free 
 from every change. That only which went forth 
 from Heaven, does Heaven receive into itself again. 2 
 
 1 Government. 
 * The soul.
 
 206 DANTE 
 
 o 
 \ 
 
 Nothing else could cause the trembling. And this 
 is why neither rain, nor hail, nor snow, nor dew, 
 nor frost, are seen higher up than the three steps ; 8 
 neither heavy clouds or light, nor lightning, nor the 
 daughter of Thaumas* who, yonder upon Earth, 
 often changes quarter. No wind blows higher up 
 than the three steps just spoken of, on which the 
 vicar of Peter sets his feet. It may perhaps tremble, 
 more or less, lower down; but it never shakes up 
 here because of the wind that is hidden in the Earth, 5 
 I know not how. In this place it trembles when a 
 soul feels itself to be pure, so that it rises, or moves 
 to ascend on high; 6 and this shout goes with it 1 
 I who have lain in this woe five hundred years and 
 more, only just now felt a free volition for a better 
 seat. This is why you felt the mountain quake, and 
 heard its pious spirits render praise unto the Lord.", 
 
 Virgil now asks the shade who he is. 
 
 SHADE 
 
 "At the time when the good Titus, with the aid 
 of the Most High King, avenged 7 the wounds from 
 
 * The gate of Purgatory. 
 
 4 Iris, the rainbow. 
 
 ^"It was commonly believed that the wind, hidden inside the 
 Earth, caused earthquakes. 
 
 ' When a soul has had the seven P's removed, the seven sins 
 washed away, then, free, and of its own accord, it rises, and 
 all Purgatory shouts for joy singing, "We praise thee, O 
 God," and the rest of the Te Deum. 
 
 f The destruction of Jerusalem by the Emperor Titus.
 
 DANTE 207, 
 
 Avhich gushed forth the blood sold by Judas, I was 
 famous upon Earth with the name 8 that lasts longest, 
 and bestows most honor, but not as yet, through 
 faith, become a Christian. So sweet was my genius 
 for song that Rome drew me to herself, although I 
 was a native of Toulouse, 9 and there I was deemed 
 worthy to have my brows crowned with myrtle. In 
 the world men yet call me Statius. I sang of 
 Thebes, and then of the great Achilles, but I sank 10 
 by the way with my second labor. The origins of 
 my flame were the sparks from that divine fire, 
 whereat more than a thousand poets have been kin- 
 dled. I refer to the JEneid, which in poetry was 
 mother and nurse to me. Without it I should not 
 have balanced a drachm's weight in the scale; and 
 to have lived yonder, when Virgil was alive, I would 
 consent to one year more of penance than I need to 
 be set free from banishment." 11 
 
 These words made Virgil turn to me with a look 
 which said silently : "Be silent !" but our wills can 
 not accomplish everything; for laughter and tears 
 j follow so close upon the feelings, in which each has 
 its origin, that the more truthful a man is the less 
 
 they obey his will. In spite of warning I smiled, 
 
 ' 
 
 \ "The name of poet. 
 
 "This is a mistake not corrected in Dante's time. Statius 
 was born in Naples. 
 . 10 Died while writing the Achillcid. 
 
 * Set free to go to Heaven, from which, in Purgatory, every 
 one regards himself as banished.
 
 208 DANTE 
 
 like a man who makes a sign. At this the shade 
 stopped speaking and looked me square in the eyes, 
 there where our feelings show plainest. And it 
 said: 
 
 "So that you may bring your great undertaking 1 * 
 to a happy end, why did your face wear that 
 amused smile just now?" 
 
 Now am I caught on one side and the other ; one 
 bids me keep silence; the other speak, because of 
 which I sigh, and my master, understanding, said : 
 
 "Fear not to speak ; tell him what he asks so ear- 
 nestly." 
 
 Whereon I : 
 
 "Mayhap you are amazed, ancient spirit, at my 
 smile, but I would have yet greater amazement seize 
 you. This one who is guiding me heavenward, is 
 that very Virgil from whom you derived the power 
 to sing of men and of gods. If you believe there 
 was another cause for my smile, put it aside as un- 
 true, and be assured it was entirely the result of 
 those words you spoke of him." 
 
 Already he was bending down to embrace the feet 
 of my teacher, but Virgil said to him: "Brother, 
 do it not, for you are a shade and you see a shade." 13 
 
 And Statins answered, rising: "Now can you 
 comprehend the intensity of the love with which I 
 
 "Journey through the universe. 
 
 M "What shadows we are and what shadows we pursue." 
 Burke.
 
 DANTE 209 
 
 burn for you, when I forget our emptiness and treat 
 spirits like solid realities." 
 
 CANTO XXII 
 
 The sixth terrace. 
 
 By this time the angel was left behind us, the 
 angel who had directed us to the sixth circle, after 
 erasing one more P from my forehead. And he had 
 said to us that those who have their hearts set on 
 righteousness are "blessed," concluding with the 
 words "who thirst," without the rest. 1 
 
 Virgil begs Statius to tell him how it can be that 
 he, of all people, should be suffering for the vice of 
 avarice. Statius answers that it is not for avarice 
 but for its opposite, prodigality, that he is on this 
 terrace. He says : 
 
 "I would have you know that avarice was too 
 much lacking in me, and for this excess, thousands 
 of months have I been punished here." 2 
 
 Virgil now says to Statius that, judging by the 
 matter in his famous poem, it does not appear that 
 at the time of writing it he had been converted. 
 
 1 Tlie angel has omitted that part of the beatitude which 
 includes the word "hunger." This is to he used a little higher 
 up when they actually reach the sixth terrace and the gluttons. 
 
 * Statius showed no measure in his spending, giving and 
 throwing away what he should have kept, which is as bad as 
 hoarding all one has, and giving nothing.
 
 210 DANTE 
 
 VIRGIL 
 
 "If this is true, what sun, or what candles 3 did so 
 dispel your darkness that thereafter you set sail in 
 the wake of the Fisherman?" 4 
 
 STATIUS 
 
 "You first showed me the road to Parnassus, to 
 drink of its fountains, and then you lit my way 
 to God. You did like the man that walks in the 
 night and carries the light behind him, helping not 
 himself, but making those wise who follow, when 
 you said : 
 
 " 'The last great age, foretold by sacred rhymes, 
 Renews its finish'd course : Saturnian times 
 Roll round again : . . . 
 A golden progeny from heaven descends.' 5 
 
 "Through you I became a poet, through you a 
 Christian. But in order that you may see more 
 clearly what I am outlining, I will set my hand to 
 filling in the colors. 6 Already the whole world was 
 teeming with the true faifh, sown by the messen- 
 
 * Heavenly, or earthly lights. 
 
 4 St. Peter. 
 
 5 Dryden's translation of the fourth Eclogue of Virgil. As 
 early as the fourth century these lines, the prophecy of the 
 Cumsean Sibyl, were taken to have been a prophecy of the 
 coming of Christ. 
 
 * He means that he will now give a fuller and more under- 
 standable account of his conversion.
 
 DANTE 211 
 
 
 
 gers of the eternal realm, and your words, just 
 quoted, were so much in harmony with the new 
 preachers, that I acquired the habit of going to hear 
 them. 7 From this time they came to seem to me so 
 holy, that when Domitian persecuted them, their 
 lamentations made me weep. And so long as I 
 remained in the world, I aided them, and their up- 
 right practises made me scorn all other sects. Be- 
 fore I had led the Greeks, in my poem, 8 as far as 
 the rivers of Thebes, I was baptized: but, through 
 fear, I remained a secret Christian, for long time 
 making pretense of paganism. My lukewarmness 9 
 caused me to tread the fourth terrace for more than 
 four hundred years." 
 
 Virgil and Statius walk on together, talking of 
 poetry, Dante gathering hints for his own. 
 
 But soon the pleasant talk was interrupted by a 
 tree which we found in the middle of the road, 
 with apples that were sweet and good to smell. 
 And as a fir-tree tapers upward from branch to 
 branch, so this tapered downward, 10 in order, I 
 think, that no one might climb it. At the side, 
 on which our path was walled," a clear stream fell 
 from the high cliff and sprinkled the foliage below. 
 
 T The Apostles. 
 8 The Thebiad. 
 f Sloth. 
 
 10 Had the shape of an elm tree. 
 
 11 The wall of the next terrace above, from which the 
 water fell.
 
 212 DANTE 
 
 The two poets drew close to the tree and a voice 
 from among the leaves cried out : 
 
 "Of this food you shall have lack." 
 
 Then it said: 
 
 "Mary thought more, how the marriage feast 12 
 should be properly set forth, and complete, than of 
 her own mouth, 13 which now intercedes in your be- 
 half; and the dames of ancient Rome were satis- 
 fied with water for their drink; 14 and Daniel de- 
 spised food and got wisdom. 15 The primeval age 
 was fair as gold ; with hunger it made acorns savory, 
 and with thirst every streamlet nectar. Honey and 
 locusts were the food with which the Baptist was 
 fed in the wilderness, because of which he is in 
 glory, and so great, as is by the Gospel revealed to 
 you." 16 
 
 CANTO XXIII 
 
 While I was straining my eyes to look deep 
 among the green leaves, just as he does who wastes 
 his time hunting the little bird, niymorc than father 
 said to me : 
 
 " The marriage in Cana. 
 
 "Than of what she should herself eat. 
 
 14 It was said that of old the Roman women did not drink 
 wine. 
 
 u Daniel i. 8 to 17. 
 
 Matthew xi. 11. 
 
 This series of magnificent examples of temperance is pro- 
 claimed by the mystic voice among the leaves, as proper to 
 be heard by souls purging away the vice of gluttony. It con- 
 sists of alternating instances taken from sacred and classical
 
 DANTE 213 
 
 "Come, my son, the time that is assigned to us 
 must be more usefully spent/' 
 
 I turned my eyes, and not less quickly my steps, 
 toward the Sages 1 who were conversing in a way 
 that made going a pleasure. And of a sudden ! both 
 as a lament and as a song, I heard : "O Lord, open 
 thou my lips," 2 so sung that it gave rise both to joy 
 and sorrow. 
 
 "My revered father, what is it that I hear?" and 
 he: 
 
 "Shades, perchance, moving past us as they work 
 out their debt of sin." 
 
 As pilgrims, wrapt in thought, when they over- 
 take strangers on the road, turn, but do not stop, 
 so, moving at a quicker pace than we, a group of 
 souls, silent and devout, overtook and passed us, 
 gazing back in astonishment upon us. Each was 
 dark and hollow around the eyes, pale of feature, 
 and so wasted that the skin took shape from the 
 bones. The sockets of their eyes looked like rings 
 without gems. Whoever would believe that the smell 
 of an apple, and of water, begetting desire, could 
 produce such effect, if he did not know by experi- 
 ence? 
 
 I was still wondering why they were so starved, 
 and what was the cause of their leanness and scurf, 
 
 sources and so coincides with the system adhered to by Dante 
 throughout the penitential terraces of Purgatory. 
 
 1 Virgil and Statius being, because poets, wise men. 
 
 1 Psalm LI. 15.
 
 214 DANTE 
 
 when all at once from the depth of its head, one of 
 these shades turned his eyes on me, looked carefully 
 and cried aloud : 
 
 "What blessed fortune this is for me !" 
 Never should I have known him by his face, but 
 in his voice I recognized what was gone from his 
 features. This spark 3 rekindled all my knowledge 
 of his altered countenance, and I saw that it was 
 the face of Forese.* 
 
 Dante expresses surprise that his old friend and 
 companion, who had been dead but five years, 
 should have advanced so far on his way through 
 Purgatory. Forese replies: 
 
 "It is my Nella with her flood of tears, who has 
 brought me thus speedily to drink the sweet worm- 
 wood of these torments. Her devout prayers and 
 sighs have taken me from the hillside where one 
 waits, 5 and have freed me from the other circles." 6 
 
 Dante says to Forese : 
 
 "If you call to mind what you were with me, and 
 I was with you, the memory will be grievous even 
 yet. From that sort of life he, 7 who is in front, 
 
 * Clue. 
 
 *A friend of Dante's youth, and a relative of his wife. 
 ' Ante-Purgatory. 
 
 * Pride, Envy, Wrath, Sloth and Avarice. 
 'VirgiL
 
 DANTE 215 
 
 lured me only the other day. He has guided me, 
 still in the flesh, through the utter darkness and 
 among the truly dead. 8 Thence have his encourage- 
 ments drawn me upward, ascending and circling the 
 mountain that sets you, whom the world made 
 crooked, straight." 9 
 
 CANTO XXIV 
 
 Among the gluttons Dante meets a poet of Lucca, 
 Bonagiunta, and discusses poetry with him. It is in 
 this conversation that he declares his belief, the 
 faith of all men of all times, whether expressed or 
 not, who have written anything worth while and 
 lasting, in poetry or prose, the belief that before all 
 else a man must have ideas; something to write 
 about ; something in which he truly takes an inter- 
 
 8 The shades in Hell for whom there is no hope, as distin- 
 guished from those in Purgatory, for whom there is not only 
 hope, but ultimate certainty of Heaven. 
 
 * About this passage there has been much contention, espe- 
 cially as to the part which Dante played in the discreditable 
 relations with Forese, which he here recalls to Forese's atten- 
 tion. "These relations seem to have been (1) ribald attacks 
 on one another," in a still extant group of sonnets : (2) their 
 boon companionship and careless living, the latter of which is 
 implied in the mode of life which is symbolized by the dark 
 forest where Dante found himself gone astray, at the very 
 beginning of Hell. That a youthful friendship, not altogether 
 noble in its conduct, was broken, and that Dante and Forese 
 then vilified each other in verse, seems to be close upon the 
 fact Here in Purgatory, where all is penitence and confes- 
 sion, the matter is disclosed with touching simplicity, and a 
 gleam of that light of reality, which makes the past live to a 
 degree almost nowhere else equaled among the many undying 
 episodes with which Dante vivifies his marvelous sermon- 
 narrative.
 
 216 DANTE 
 
 est. This passage in which Dante tells how he wrote, 
 is as clear, as it is brief, and as practically useful, 
 if understood, as it is terse and plain. It is a beau- 
 tiful example of the great creative artist in the role 
 of critic. The shade of Bonagiunta says : 
 
 "But tell me, if I am looking upon him, who in- 
 vented those new rhymes, beginning: 'Ladies who 
 have intelligence of Love'?" 1 
 
 DANTE 
 
 "I am one who, when Love inspires me, takes 
 note, and, after the manner which he dictates within, 
 gives utterance." 
 
 BONAGIUNTA 
 
 "O brother, now I see what it was that hindered 
 the Notary, and Guittone, and me from attaining the 
 sweet new style which I hear. 2 I now see clearly 
 how your pen follows closely after the dictator, 3 
 which certainly was not the case with ours. And 
 
 *The first canzone of The New Life, Dante's first book, 
 begins with this line. The speaker refers to it as being in the 
 then new style, and wants to know if he is in the presence 
 of the author of that style. 
 
 *The Notary means a Sicilian poet, Jacopo da Lentino, 
 who, with Guittone of Arezzo, and the speaker himself, failed 
 to attain anything that approached poetic success. 
 
 * Love. 
 
 " 'Fool,' said my Muse to me, 'look in thy heart and write.' " 
 Sir Philip Sidney.
 
 DANTE 217 
 
 he who undertakes to look further can not find more 
 cause for the difference between our style and 
 yours." 
 
 After some further talk Dante and Virgil are 
 left behind by Forese. Then : 
 
 Not far away there appeared before my eyes the 
 laden and living boughs of another fruit tree. 4 Be- 
 neath it I saw people who were holding up their 
 hands, and crying, I know not what, toward the 
 branches, like eager and expectant little children 
 who beg, and he from whom they beg gives not, 
 but to make their longing keener, holds out of reach 
 what they want, and shows it openly. 
 
 From among the leaves mystic voices cite famous 
 cases of gluttony, for the hearing and tormenting 
 of the people who beg fruit and are denied. Finally 
 the angel of the pass comes. 
 
 As the breeze of May, herald of the dawn, stirs 
 and breathes forth sweetness, full to overflowing, 
 with scent of herb and flower, such an air I felt upon 
 my forehead, and clearly too, the stir of wings 
 which spread an ambrosial fragrance round about. 
 And I heard : 
 
 4 As he was circling the terrace, looking forward, Forese 
 gone out of sight, this tree appeared.
 
 218 DANTE 
 
 "Blessed are they whom so much grace illumines 
 that their love of taste does not kindle overpowering 
 desire, hungering always so much as is right." 5 
 
 CANTO XXV 
 
 The seventh terrace. The main part of this canto 
 is taken up with a difficult discourse by Statius upon 
 generation, and the manner of infusing the soul into 
 the body. Dante asks why the shades of the gluttons 
 are all so emaciated. Statius answers, and tells 
 what the nature of a shade really is, and how it 
 comes to have the appearance of a human body, and 
 the senses of the flesh. This passage, aside from 
 being interesting in itself, is most important as help- 
 ing us to understand what the shades, or ghosts, 
 really are; the actors of The Divine Comedy. 
 
 "Open your heart to the truth which is coming, 
 and learn that so soon as the articulation of the 
 brain is perfect in the embryo, God turns to it re- 
 joicing at the handiwork of nature, and breathes into 
 it a spirit replete with strength which absorbs into 
 its own substance whatever it finds active in the em- 
 bryo, and thereon it becomes an individual soul, 
 which lives, and feels, and centers its thoughts upon 
 itself. 1 And in order that you may be less puzzled 
 
 8 Resisting gluttony. 
 
 1 Becomes conscious of its own existence as an individual, 
 rational being, and, as such, distinguished from all other 
 creatures.
 
 DANTE 219 
 
 by my words, consider how the sun's warmth, com- 
 bining with the juice of the grape, becomes wine. 2 
 At last when Lachesis has no more thread, 3 this soul 
 is set free from the flesh and bears away, latent 
 within itself, its faculties, both the human and the 
 divine, 4 the flesh remaining inactive behind; but 
 memory, intelligence, and will, far more powerful 
 than before. 6 Without a pause, it falls naturally on 
 one or other of the two river banks. 6 There it first 
 learns its destined way. So soon as it reaches its 
 allotted place, 7 its spiritual substance 8 shines out 
 around it in the same shape and size as it had when 
 it dwelt in the living members. And as our at- 
 mosphere, charged with moisture, takes on a lovely 
 iridescence, because of the sun's rays reflected in 
 it, so in the other world 9 the air shapes itself to that 
 form which the soul, that has come to 10 its destina- 
 
 *As the heat of the sun passes into the juice of the grape 
 and forms wine, so the rational soul, the soul with powers of 
 reasoning, the divine element, which proceeds from God, 
 entering into the vegetative and sensitive soul, human ele- 
 ments, forms the perfect, complete being, i. e., both human 
 and divine, human soul. See Tozer, English Commentary on 
 La Divina Commedia, page 346. 
 
 'When life comes to an end. 
 
 4 That which pertains to the life of the body, and that which 
 pertains to the other, soul or intellect. 
 
 "Before death. 
 
 "Of Acheron, if bound for Hell; of Tiber, if bound for 
 Purgatory. 
 
 T Hell or Purgatory. 
 
 "The inherent or shaping principle which invisibly makes 
 us what we are, in stature, and features, while we live. 
 
 "The world of the dead. 
 
 10 In its fall to the shores of Acheron or Tiber.
 
 220 DANTE 
 
 tion, stamps upon it. And then, as flame follows 
 fire 11 wherever it shifts, so this renewed shape ac- 
 companies the spirit. Since from the moment of 
 this transformation it has visibility, it is called a 
 shade, and as such it also receives back all the 
 senses, even the sense of sight; thence we speak, 
 and laugh, and thence we weep and sigh, as you 
 have heard on this mountain. In accord as our de- 
 sires and our passions mold us are our shades 
 molded." 12 
 
 They now approach the spirits of the lustful, 
 walking in fire and singing, "God of clemency su- 
 preme." 13 
 
 And I saw shades walking through the fire 
 whereat I gave heed to them and measured my foot- 
 steps to theirs, thus keeping my look on each from 
 moment to moment. 14 When their hymn was done, 
 they cried aloud : "I know not a man ;" 15 then with 
 low tones recommenced the hymn. This in turn 
 finished, they cried anew ; "Diana abode in the wood, 
 
 11 Fire is here used to mean the vital principle and not what 
 we generally understand by fire. 
 
 a The spirit body. Thus Dante accounts for the emaciation 
 of the shades of the gluttons, so deep-eyed, hollow-cheeked 
 and thin. 
 
 "The hymn containing a prayer for purity. 
 
 "They in the fire, and Dante outside of it, walking with 
 them. 
 
 M The words of Mary to the angel of the Annunciation, 
 Luke i. 34.
 
 DANTE 221 
 
 and from it drove Helice, 16 who had tasted the poi- 
 son of Venus." Then they again began to sing: 
 and afterward loudly proclaimed husbands and 
 wives who were chaste, as virtue and marriage en- 
 join. And this procedure suffices for the whole of 
 the time that the fire burns them. By such cure, 
 and such means, it is necessary that the last P 
 should be blotted out. 17 
 
 CANTO xxvi 
 
 Among the many shades purging themselves of 
 lust in the fire, Dante meets one in particular who 
 tells him who he is : 
 
 "I am Guido Guinicelli, 1 and I am already cleans- 
 ing myself because I repented before my last hour." 
 
 Such as the two sons of Lycurgus became when 
 in the nfidst of their rage and sorrow they again be- 
 held their mother, 2 such I became, but not so utterly 
 carried away, when I heard this one name himself, 
 in poetry, my father, and the father of others, my 
 betters, and of all who ever made sweet and grace- 
 
 M A nymph who bore a son to Jupiter. 
 
 11 The last P, standing for the last of the mortal sins, namely 
 Lust 
 
 *The most famous of Italian poets before Dante. He be- 
 longed in Bologna. 
 
 *At the moment when Lycurgus, in grief and rage was 
 about to kill his wife for carelessly causing the death of their 
 infant son, she (Hypsipyle) was recognized, and saved, by her 
 elder sons, Euneus and Thoas.
 
 222 DANTE 
 
 ful rhymes of love. 8 Absorbed in thought, not hear* 
 ing or speaking, utterly amazed, I walked on, gazing 
 a long time at him. But because of the fire I did not 
 go close to him. When I was fully satisfied with 
 looking, I offered myself with the sort of vow which 
 begets trust, as being entirely ready to serve him. 
 
 And he to me : 
 
 "From what I hear, you make such a clear im- 
 pression on me, that Lethe can not wash it away, or 
 dim it. But if, just now, your vow was truly sworn, 
 tell me why, in word and look, you show that you 
 hold me so dear?" 
 
 And I to him : 
 
 "Your sweet songs, which shall endure as long 
 as modern usage continues, make the very ink in 
 which they are written, dear to me."* 
 
 CANTO XXVII 
 
 The day was fading, when the angel of God, all 
 gladness, appeared to us. He was standing on the 
 
 "Dante regarded Guido Guinicelli as the father of Italian 
 poetry. 
 
 4 Guido wrote in the vulgar tongue, in Italian, the language 
 of the people, as opposed to Latin, the language of church and 
 court, and of learning generally. This was the modern usage. 
 Dante's love for his teacher, father to him in poetry, is 
 equaled only by his affection for Brunetto Latini (Hell, Canto 
 XV). Together, the two passages express such a depth of 
 reverence for a good teacher as is not surpassed in the realm 
 of letters. Dante himself, in his own work, illustrates the 
 truth of Ruskin's remark that a good teacher is to be known 
 by the fact that his pupils are better than he.
 
 DANTE 223 
 
 edge of the terrace, outside the fire, and was sing- 
 ing: 
 
 "Blessed are the pure in heart," with voice sur- 
 passing human. 
 
 Then: 
 
 "No one advances beyond this spot, O holy souls, 
 if he has not first suffered in the fire: enter it, and 
 to the song on the far side, sharpen your ears." 
 
 This he said to us, as we drew near to him. On 
 hearing this I became like one who is put in the pit. 1 
 With clasped hands I stretched forward looking at 
 the fire, picturing to myself human bodies that I 
 had seen burned at the stake. My kind guides 
 turned to me, and Virgil said : 
 
 "Son, here may be torment, but not death. Be 
 careful ! be careful ! for if even on the back of Ger- 
 yon I guided you safe, what can I not do now that 
 we are so much nearer God? Believe for certain, 
 that if you were to stand within this fire for a full 
 thousand years, it could not make you bald of a 
 single hair. And if perchance you think that I am 
 deceiving you, approach it, and make trial of it 
 with your own hands, upon the hem of your gar- 
 ments. From this moment lay aside every fear; 
 turn this way, and come forward in perfect safety." 
 
 Notwithstanding, and in spite of conscience, I did 
 not stir. 
 
 1 Like a criminal about to be buried alive.
 
 224 DANTE 
 
 i 
 
 When he saw me, still motionless and obdurate, 
 he said, a little disturbed : 
 
 "Look, son, between you and Beatrice is this 
 wall." 
 
 As at the name of Thisbe, Pyramus, on the point 
 of death, opened his eyes and gazed on her, at the 
 time when the mulberry turned purple, 2 so, my ob- 
 stinacy being softened, I turned to my wise leader, 
 hearing the name that ever in my memory wells up. 
 At this he nodded his head, and said : 
 I "Do we want to stay longer on this side ?" Then 
 he smiled as one does at a child won by an apple. 
 
 Thereupon, leading, he entered the fire, praying 
 Statius, who for a long way had come between us, 
 to follow on behind. When I was within the fire 
 I would have thrown myself into molten glass to 
 cool me, so intensely did it burn. My beloved 
 father, to encourage me, spoke incessantly of 
 Beatrice, saying: 
 
 "Already I seem to see her eyes." 
 
 A voice singing on the far side guided us, and 
 we, heeding only it, issued forth where the ascent 
 began. 
 
 "Come, ye blessed of my Father," 3 sounded 
 within a light that shone so bright that I could not 
 look at it. 
 
 3 The lovers met under a mulberry tree and, at the prayer 
 of Thisbe, who was dying by her own hand because Pyramus 
 was dead, the fruit of the mulberry turned from white to 
 dark. 
 
 1 Matthew xxv. 34.
 
 DANTE 225 
 
 "The sun is sinking fast," it added, "and the night 
 approaches; tarry not, but quicken your steps until 
 the west is dark." 
 
 The passage led straight up through the rock, in 
 such direction that in front I cut off the sun's rays 
 which were already low. We had mounted but few 
 of the stairs when by the disappearance of my 
 shadow, both I and the sages knew that the sun had 
 set. And ere the horizon in all its boundlessness 
 had taken on one color, and night had all her orna- 
 ments, each of us made his bed upon a stair, for the 
 nature of the mountain took away the power to 
 climb, rather than the desire. 
 
 As goats, that have been agile and fleet upon the 
 mountain peaks, ere they have fed, grow quiet while 
 chewing the cud, hushed in the shade; so long as 
 the sun is hot, tended by the goatherd who, leaning 
 on his staff, watches over them; and as the herds- 
 man who lives in the open, spends the night beside 
 his quiet flock, taking care that no wild beast scat- 
 ter it; such then were all three of us, I like a goat, 
 and they like shepherds, hemmed in on either side by 
 the high ledges. Little of what was outside could 
 be seen, but in that little I beheld the stars both 
 brighter and larger than usual. So, musing, and 
 looking out upon them, 4 sleep laid hold on me, sleep 
 which often reveals an event before it takes place. 
 
 At the hour, I think, when Venus, who seems al- 
 
 4 The stars.
 
 226 DANTE 
 
 ways burning with the fire of love, first shone upon 
 the mountain, 5 I had a dream wherein I saw a lady, 
 young and lovely, walking in a meadow and gather- 
 ing flowers. She was singing: 
 
 "Let him who asks my name know that I am 
 Leah; and that while I move about, I ply my fair 
 hands to weave me a garland. To have delight be- 
 fore my mirror, I here adorn myself, but my sister 
 Rachel never forsakes her looking-glass, sitting be- 
 fore it the livelong day. She is as eager to look at 
 her sweet eyes, as I to deck me with my hands. 
 Contemplation is her joy ; work is mine." 6 
 
 And now, because of the brightness which pre- 
 cedes the sun, and which to pilgrims is more wel- 
 come the nearer home they pass each night, dark- 
 ness was vanishing on every side and with it my 
 slumber. Then I rose, seeing the great masters 7 
 already risen. 
 
 "That sweet fruit 8 which the care of mortals 
 seeks upon so many branches, shall this day satisfy 
 your hunger." 
 
 These words Virgil said to me, and never were 
 gifts that gave so much pleasure. So intense did 
 
 6 Venus as morning star is rising in the dawn. 
 
 "The mirror and the looking-glass mean the face of God, 
 gazing at which Leah, symbolizing the active, and Rachel the 
 contemplative life, find their bliss. The dream foreshadows 
 what is soon to occur and be seen in the Earthly Paradise, 
 when Dante shall meet Matilda and Beatrice; a sort of proem. 
 
 7 Statius and Virgil. 
 "The Supreme Good.
 
 DANTE 227, 
 
 wish on wish to be above, come to me, that after 
 these words I felt my wings with every step grow 
 stronger for the flight. 
 
 When the stairway beneath our feet had been all 
 gone over, and we were on the topmost step, Virgil 
 fixed his eyes on me and said : 
 
 "Son, you have seen the temporal fire, 9 and the 
 eternal, 10 and you have now reached a place where, 
 unaided, I can see no farther. 11 I have guided you 
 so far with understanding and with skill. From now 
 on let your own pleasure guide you. You are be- 
 yond the steep places, beyond the narrow. See ! the 
 sun is shining full upon your brow; behold the 
 young grass, the flowers, and the shrubs which in 
 this place 12 the earth of itself brings forth. 13 Until, 
 with joy overflowing, the lovely eyes appear which, 
 full of tears, bade me go to you, you may sit upon 
 the grass and stroll among the flowers. Await no 
 further word or sign, from me. Free, upright, and 
 sound, is your own will. It would be wrong not to 
 act according to its dictates ; wherefore over your- 
 self I crown and mitre you." 14 
 
 * Purgatory. 
 
 10 H . elL . 
 
 11 Virgil representing human reason and knowledge can not 
 
 act as guide in the Earthly Paradise, to which they are just 
 now coming. 
 
 " Earthly Paradise. 
 
 "Without seed. 
 
 "Virgil, as it were, bestows on Dante complete jurisdiction 
 over himself. The crown refers to temporal conduct; the 
 mitre to spiritual. Being purged of the seven sins, and of
 
 228 DANTE 
 
 CANTO XXVIII 
 
 Eager to explore the heavenly forest which, 
 dense, and always green, tempered the light of 
 the new day, without longer wait I left the moun- 
 tain's edge and slowly took the level ground which 
 everywhere breathed fragrance. A gentle breeze 
 that changed not its direction, fanned my brow. It 
 bent the light boughs toward the west, but not 
 enough to stop the little birds singing in the tops. 
 There they sang joyously among the leaves, and 
 there they welcomed the morning zephyr which ac- 
 companied their songs. 
 
 By this time, walking slowly, I had gone so far 
 into the primeval wood that I could no longer see 
 the place where I had entered. Suddenly, my way 
 was cut off by a stream whose gentle rippling bent 
 leftward the grass that grew upon its margin. All 
 the waters that are clearest upon Earth, would seem 
 
 inclination for any one of them, Virgil tells Dante that from 
 now on his own desires will be safe guides to good, and that 
 his will is not only free, but can not make an error. As 
 Dante is here represented, though himself soon to return to 
 the world, and the struggle with temptation and vice, such is 
 every soul upon the termination of its purgatorial journey, 
 and at the moment of admittance to the higher, the everlast- 
 ing world of goodness and God, which is Paradise. Dante 
 u?es himself as a symbol of the purified souls of the elect. 
 The beautiful imagery of Leah and Rachel, and the kingly 
 sort of freedom bestowed on Dante by Virgil, along with the 
 wonderful beauty of earthly things, intensified by an inde- 
 finable sort of mystical beauty in a word, the whole latter 
 part of the twenty-seventh Canto of Purgatory is really the 
 prologue to the Earthly Paradise and all that it contains of 
 transcendent loveliness and mystery.
 
 DANTE 229 
 
 murky compared with that which here hides noth- 
 ing, as it flows on, dark, almost black, beneath the 
 perpetual shadow, 1 which never lets enter ray of sun 
 or moon. 
 
 My feet I moved not, but with my eyes I crossed 
 to the other side of the little stream and gazed in 
 amazement on the variety of fresh blossoms. On 
 the opposite bank, just as when something appears 
 suddenly which diverts all one's thoughts, there ap- 
 peared a solitary lady. As she moved she sang, and 
 all the while she busied herself gathering flowers 
 from among those which brightened her path. 
 
 "Fair lady, happy in the glow of love, to judge by 
 looks, which are the tell-tales of the heart, may it 
 please you," said I to her, "to come so near the 
 stream that I can hear what you are singing. You 
 make me remember where and what Proserpine was 
 at the time her mother lost her, and she the spring." 2 
 
 As, dancing, a lady turns, keeping her feet close 
 to the ground, and together, one foot scarcely set 
 before the other, so, this lady, and directed her mod- 
 est eyes, lowered in the manner of a maiden, 
 across the red and yellow flowers, upon me. She 
 
 1 Due to the dense foliage of the wood. 
 
 1 Ceres was the mother of Proserpine, who, while gather- 
 ing flowers, was carried off to the underworld by Pluto. It 
 was so Proserpine lost the spring; a lovely story, retold by 
 Hawthorne with such charm as few of the stories of Greece 
 have ever been retold. The finality and tenderness of Dante's 
 line recall the similar finality and tenderness of Pericles 
 in speaking of Athens, and of her young men killed in battle; 
 "the city has lost its youth and the year has lost its spring."
 
 230 DANTE 
 
 granted my prayer and drew so near that her sweet 
 tones reached me with their meaning. 8 When she 
 arrived at the place where the water of the pretty 
 stream bathed the grass, she rejoiced my very soul 
 by her eyes. I do not believe that so fair a light 
 shone beneath the lids of Venus when she was trans- 
 fixed by her own son, in a manner utterly unusual.* 
 There, opposite, on the right bank she stood, smil- 
 ing, and gathering those varicolored flowers which 
 grow without the planting of seed in that ex- 
 alted place. The stream put three paces between 
 us; but the Hellespont where Xerxes crossed it, to 
 this day a curb upon all human pride, was not more 
 hated by Leander because it flowed between Sestos 
 and Abydos, than this stream was hated by me, be- 
 cause it did not open. 
 
 "You are newcomers," she began, "and mayhap 
 you wonder why I am smiling here in this place 
 which was chosen for the cradle of the human race. 
 The psalm, 'For thou, Lord, hast made me glad/ 
 contains the light that will illumine your under- 
 standing." 5 
 
 8 He could distinguish the words of her song. 
 
 * Cupid accidentally hit Venus with one of his arrows, thus 
 causing her to fall in love with Adonis. 
 
 8 Psalm xcii :4. "For thou Lord, hast made me glad 
 through thy work; I will triumph in the works of thy hands." 
 Matilda smiles with gladness as she looks at the forest and 
 the flowers, God's handiwork. Psalm xix. Matilda has seen 
 in the faces of the poets an expression of surprise at her 
 smiling in so sacred a place.
 
 DANTE 231 
 
 The fair lady, who is Matilda, now discourses on 
 the nature of the Earthly Paradise and tells how 
 the generation of plants, and the conditions of the 
 atmosphere, differ in their procedure from similar 
 phenomena on Earth. She further tells about the 
 stream on whose banks they are standing; how it 
 neither loses by evaporation nor is increased by 
 rainfall, but maintains a steady flow, and even 
 volume, in accord with the will of God. It is here 
 in the Earthly Paradise that Dante begins to pile 
 miracle upon fact. Up all the steps of Purgatory 
 he insists upon the loveliness and grandeur of na- 
 ture, as we know her on Earth, in all her aspects, 
 great and small. Now he begins to raise the real 
 above itself, and in this he continues steadily until 
 from the Earthly he carries us to the Heavenly 
 Paradise, and from the outer circles of it, to the 
 innermost, where is God Himself. 
 
 As Dante's Hell can be likened to a single mag- 
 nificent picture of shadow, his Purgatory and Para- 
 dise, inseparable halves of one great whole, can be 
 likened to a single magnificent picture of light. 
 Each, at any given point, seems total darkness, or 
 dazzling light, but move the mind's eye up or down 
 upon the canvas, i. e., through the cantos, and it in- 
 stantly becomes sensible of increasing darkness, or 
 increasing light. That same strength and delicacy 
 of perception which enabled Rembrandt to see, 
 where most men only grope; which made him the
 
 232 DANTE 
 
 discoverer of the beauties and meanings which dark- 
 ness holds; that same outward eyesight, and in- 
 ward vision, which enabled Turner to see, where 
 most men are blinded, thus constituting him, before 
 all other artists, the revealer of the wonders of the 
 loveliness which light holds these attributes, com- 
 bined in Dante, gave him the power to penetrate the 
 abyss, scale the mountain, fly the heavens, and to 
 report the things he saw therein, as no other human 
 being has ever done. Each of these men had his 
 own, a masterly technique, but of far greater import 
 to art is the fact that each of them had the power to 
 see and understand, in a word, have ideas, which 
 are the alpha and omega of all art. 
 
 In Sartor Rcsartus, Carlyle says: "To each is 
 given a certain inward talent, a certain outward en- 
 vironment of Fortune, to each by wisest combina- 
 tion of these two, a certain maximum of capability." 
 
 For the maximum of capability yet vouchsafed 
 the world in the forms of painting, and of writing, 
 the essential substance of which is ideas concern- 
 ing darkness and light, literal and figurative, light 
 and darkness, we must go to Rembrandt, to Turner, 
 to Dante. 
 
 Matilda says, speaking of the stream : 
 
 "On this side it flows downward, having the 
 power to wash away the memory of sin; on the
 
 DANTE 233 
 
 other side, to restore the memory of good deeds. 
 On this side it is called Lethe, on that, Eunoe ; and 
 these things it does not do unless it is tasted first 
 on this, and then on that side. The flavor of thi* 
 water is above all others." 6 
 
 She closes her speech with these lovely lines about 
 Eden: 
 
 "Those 7 who in old time sang of the Golden Age, 
 and its happy state, perchance upon Parnassus, 
 dreamed of this place; here dwelt the root of man- 
 kind in innocence ; 8 here are eternal spring and every 
 fruit ; this is the nectar of which they all sing." 
 
 CANTOS XXIX TO XXXIII 
 
 The four concluding cantos of Purgatory give a 
 marvelous figurative account of the history of the 
 Church, Church Militant and Church Triumphant, 
 and of the words of Beatrice when she accuses 
 Dante of having been unfaithful to her, and of 
 his answering and entire confession. After this 
 he passes through the waters of Lethe, and for- 
 
 ' Lethe washes away the memory of past sins and flows 
 downward with them to Hell. Eunoe, stream of "kindly 
 thoughts," equips the soul for the place, Earthly Paradise, 
 vhere no other thoughts can exist. 
 
 f Virgil was accredited with having foretold the coming of 
 Oirist in what he snid in the fourth Eclogue about the Golden 
 Age. See Canto XXII, page 210. 
 
 "Adam and Eve.
 
 234 DANTE 
 
 gets sin, both the sins of the world, and his own 
 sins, and then, through the waters of Eunoe, thus 
 renewing memory of all the good that he had ever 
 done. At this point he is ready for Heaven, and 
 the journey of the mountain, and the sojourn in the 
 Earthly Paradise, come to a mystically quiet and 
 happy ending. 
 
 The passages dealing with the Mystic Procession 
 of the Church have figurative reference to the Old 
 and New Testaments, the books of each, and their 
 bearing upon the Church on Earth, and in Heaven ; 
 its persecutions and its victory. Never, save in 
 Revelations, has pageantry risen to such height. It 
 is the work of a consummate colorist and designer. 
 It goes, as it were, uttering the simplicity that is 
 sublime. Nowhere else does Dante so surely prove 
 himself to be of the Italian thirteenth- fourteenth 
 century, and of the very greatest men of that, or 
 any other time. Now T here else does he so unques- 
 tionably establish his like-mindedness to Giotto, 
 and to the artists who did the early frescoes in the 
 Pisan cemetery. That he spoke, and they painted,, 
 constitutes no essential difference. Of one mind, 
 they thought alike. "The pictures on the walls of the 
 churches are the books of the common people," said 
 Pope Gregory VII. The Italian language was the 
 language of the common people. It was to the com- 
 mon people that Dante's pages, and the walls of 
 Pisa and Assisi made their intended appeal. All,
 
 DANTE 235 
 
 alike, were preachers; preachers of profound truth 
 set forth in forms of exalted beauty. There is 
 much that may be difficult to grasp in the form, 
 but little that is difficult to grasp in the meaning 
 of the work of these men, even to-day. If this 
 were not so, our twentieth century would not pause 
 long, in increasing numbers, and with delight, before 
 such work. Wherever and whenever men love color, 
 and form, and fragrance, and beauty, and truth, 
 there and then will the Last Judgment frescoes, the 
 so-called "Four Last Things" of the Campo Santo 
 in Pisa, the frescoed life of St. Francis, in Assisi, 
 and Dante's Mystic Procession of the Church, be 
 prized. 
 
 In reading the concluding cantos of Purgatory I 
 know of nothing so truly useful as a few sentences 
 in Professor A. C. Bradley's address on Poetry 
 for Poetry's Sake, Oxford, 1901. "When you are 
 reading a poem, I would ask not analyzing it, and 
 much less criticizing it, but allowing it, as it pro- 
 ceeds, to make its full impression on you through 
 the exertion of your re-creating imagination do 
 you then apprehend and enjoy as one thing a certain 
 meaning or substance, and as another thing certain 
 articulate sounds, and do you somehow compound 
 these two? Surely you do not, any more than you 
 apprehend apart, when you see some one smile, 
 those lines in a face which express a feeling, and 
 the feeling that the lines express."
 
 236 DANTE 
 
 As far as possible, and before all else, when first 
 reading these marvelous cantos of Purgatory we 
 should read for a full impression. It is time enough 
 later to read for detail, and hidden meanings, and 
 allusion. To begin with, take them as you would a 
 fine picture which you knew you were to see for ten 
 minutes only, and never afterward; as you would 
 a splendid pageant upon which you came unexpect- 
 edly, not allowing your sense and enjoyment of the 
 whole to be marred because you are puzzled by the 
 meaning of any, even many, of the details, for after 
 all, the whole is above the parts, and the parts exist 
 for it, not it for the parts. In art, we should first 
 try to look at the whole. 
 
 When Matilda had done speaking, as if trans- 
 ported by love, she began to sing: "Blessed is he 
 whose transgression is forgiven." 1 And, like the 
 nymphs who used to wander solitary through the 
 wooded glades, some seeking, others avoiding, the 
 sun, she began to take her way along the bank, 
 counter to the current, and I followed, keeping pact 
 with her short steps. Together we had not gone a 
 hundred steps, when the borders of the stream took 
 a turn and I found myself once more facing East. 
 Nor had we been moving long in this direction, 
 when the lady turned squarely toward me, saying: 
 
 "My brother, look and listen." 
 
 1 Psalm xxxii:!.
 
 DANTE 237 
 
 All at once an unexpected light flashed through the 
 immense forest in every direction, so that I ques- 
 tioned if it were not lightning. But because light- 
 ning goes as soon as it comes, and this stayed, and 
 grew brighter and brighter, I said to myself : "What 
 can this thing be?" Then a sweet melody floated 
 through the bright air. It was then that righteous 
 indignation made me upbraid the foolhardiness of 
 Eve, who, the only woman, and just created, there 
 where the Earth and Heaven were obedient, could 
 not check her curiosity, 2 had she done which, I should 
 have tasted these ineffable delights before, and for a 
 longer time. As I walked onward, among so many 
 first fruits of the eternal pleasure, self-absorbed, but 
 yearning for still loftier delights, the whole atmos- 
 phere beneath the green boughs, in front of us, be- 
 gan to glow like fire, and the sweet melody changed 
 to song. 
 
 O thrice sacred Virgins 3 if ever for your sake I 
 endured hunger, cold, and sleepless nights, this is 
 the time to claim my reward. Now verily should 
 Helicon gush forth in my behalf, and Urania, with 
 her choir, aid me to put into verse things difficult to 
 conceive. 
 
 A little farther on when I had come so near to 
 them that distance no longer blurred those charac- 
 teristic details, on which reason bases judgment, I 
 discovered that seven golden trees which appeared in 
 
 1 Remain in ignorance of anything. 
 
 *The Muses to whom Dante makes invocation; Helicon, 
 whose waters of inspiration he craves; Urania, the muse of
 
 238 DANTE 
 
 front of us were an illusion, for then I distinguished 
 them as candlesticks,* and I heard voices singing 
 "Hosanna." On high this fair array was blazing 
 brighter far than the full moon at clear midnight. Ut- 
 terly amazed I turned to Virgil and he answered me 
 with a look no less astonished. Then I turned back 
 to those sublime things which were coming toward 
 us at a pace slower than that of new-wedded brides. 
 
 The lady chid me, saying: 
 
 "Why are you zealous only to gaze at those living 
 lights and heedless of that which is coming behind 
 them?" 
 
 Then I realized that there were people following 
 the candlesticks, as after leaders. Their raiment 
 was white, and such whiteness never was on Earth. 
 The shining water on my left gave back reflections 
 like a mirror as I looked at it. When I reached a 
 place where nothing but the stream intervened, in 
 order to see better, I stopped. And I saw that the 
 flames, going on before, left ribbons of color in the 
 air behind them. These floated out like pennons, so 
 that they barred the air overhead with seven stripes 
 whose colors were those with which the sun paints 
 his bow, and Delia 5 her girdle. These streamers 
 reached back farther than I could see, and the outer 
 
 Astronomy, and hence of the heavenly things with which he 
 is now to deal. 
 
 4 The seven spirits of God. See Rev. iv :5. 
 
 "The moon.
 
 DANTE 239 
 
 ones were, to the best of my judgment, ten paces 
 apart. 6 Beneath so lovely a sky as I describe, two 
 by two, came four and twenty Elders, crowned with 
 fleur-de-lis. Together all were chanting : 
 
 "Blessed art thou among the daughters of Adam, 
 and thy loveliness forever blessed." 
 
 When the flowers and tender plants of the oppo- 
 site bank were free of this congregation of the 
 elect, 7 there followed, just as star rises upon star in 
 the firmament, four living creatures, each with a 
 coronal of green leaves. They had six wings and 
 their feathers were full of eyes. The eyes of Argus 8 
 would be such, were they still alive. But to describe 
 them, Reader, I make no more verses, for other 
 spending 9 compels me to save here. Go to Ezekiel, 
 who pictures them as he saw them come from the 
 north, with wind, cloud, and lightnings; 10 and as 
 you find them in his pages such did I see them, save 
 
 *No better instance of the untrammelled imagination, 
 couched in words of mathematical precision, can be found 
 elsewhere, even in the work of Dante, who for this sort of 
 thing is famous among all artists; whose pictures are, for 
 this very reason, so convincingly real; whose art, like all 
 transcendent art, falls short of, and exceeds, at one and the 
 same time, the phenomena of nature on which it is based, and 
 to which it is ever faithful. A sentence of the poet-artist, 
 William Blake, is to the point. "To generalize is to be an 
 idiot. To particularize is the great distinction of merit." 
 
 1 The Elders. 
 
 * Argus, famous for keenness of sight, because of his hun- 
 dred eyes. 
 
 9 Of my poetical strength. 
 
 M Ezekiel i :4-7.
 
 240 DANTE 
 
 that, as to the wings, John 11 agrees with me, and 
 not with Ezekiel. 
 
 In the space between these four living creatures 12 
 was a two-wheeled triumphal chariot drawn by a 
 Griffon. 13 His wings rose high up between the mid- 
 most of the bars of varicolored light, nor did harm 
 to one of them by cleaving it. So high did they 
 rise that their tips were lost to view. The parts of 
 the Griffon that were bird, were golden; the rest 
 were scarlet and white. Neither Africanus nor Au- 
 gustus delighted Rome with so splendid a chariot; 
 but even that of the Sun would look poor by com- 
 parison. By the right wheel three ladies 14 were 
 dancing in a circle. One of them was so rosy that 
 
 " Revelations iv :8. Here again is an extraordinary instance 
 of the concreteness in reporting imaginary things which 
 clothes report with material reality. These three, Ezekiel, 
 John, Dante, have seen the same creatures, who, reading 
 their words, can doubt it? as plainly as the living animals on 
 Earth, but in one respect Ezekiel and John differ. When 
 Dante's tiyn came, his eyes confirm John's seeing and report. 
 It is not difficult, in the light of such a passage, to under- 
 stand what Emerson meant by saying: "I think, if I were 
 professor of Rhetoric, teacher of the art of writing well to 
 young men, I should use Dante for my text-book. Come 
 hither, youth, and learn how the brook that flows at the bot- 
 tom of your garden, or the farmer who ploughs the adjacent 
 field, your father and mother, your debts and credits, and 
 your web of habits are the very best basis of poetry, and the 
 material which you must work up. Here is an imagination that 
 rivals in closeness and precision the senses. But we must 
 prize him as we do a rainbow, we can appropriate nothing of 
 him." Journals 1849. 
 
 "The Evangelists. 
 
 M A creature half lion, half eagle, signifying the divine and 
 the human natures in Christ. 
 ^ M Faith, Hope,
 
 DANTE 241 
 
 in fire she would have been scarcely distinguishable. 
 The second looked as if her flesh and bone were 
 emerald. The third was as new-fallen snow. Now 
 their dancing seemed to be led by the white, now by 
 the red, the other two keeping quick step, or slow, 
 in time with the leader. 15 On the left, four ladies, 18 
 in purple raiment, were making festival, and fol- 
 lowing the time set by her who had three eyes in 
 her 17 head. 
 
 Behind the group which I have described, I saw 
 come, two old men, unlike in garb, but in bearing 
 similar, both dignified and grave. One 18 of them 
 appeared to be a disciple of that great Hippocrates, 
 whom Nature made for the creatures that she holds 
 dearest ; the other 19 showed a very different disposi- 
 tion, carrying so shining and so sharp a sword that 
 it made me tremble even across the river. Then I 
 saw come, 20 four persons of humble appearance, 
 and last of all a solitary old man, walking in sleep, 
 but with lively countenance. 21 And these seven were 
 
 "Hope, as in reality, always following Faith or Charity 
 i. e., Love. 
 
 ' Prudence, Justice, Temperance, Fortitude. 
 
 " Prudence. 
 
 * St. Luke, "the beloved physician." 
 
 " St. Paul. 
 
 "St. James, St. Peter, St. John, St. Jude, representing the 
 Epistles. 
 
 n St. John representing Revelation. He is made old in ref- 
 erence to the fact that he outlived all his generation, and this, 
 so that he might give more information about Christ to the 
 new generation.
 
 242 DANTE 
 
 :lothed like the first group, 22 but in place of lilies 
 their heads were crowned with roses and other crim- 
 son flowers. To see them at a distance one would 
 have sworn they were all on fire above their brows. 
 And when the chariot had come opposite to me, a 
 peal of thunder sounded, and the noble host ap- 
 peared to be forbidden further progress, halting 
 when the leading ensigns stopped. 28 
 
 CANTO xxx 
 
 When the seven candlesticks of the Empyrean- 
 which never knew setting nor rising, nor were ever 
 hidden, save by sin, had indicated his duty to every 
 one there assembled, like the unrising and unsetting 
 Bear by which the mariner steers his course to port 
 stopped, the Elders, whose place was between the 
 Griffon and the candlesticks, turned to the chariot, 
 as to that wherein was their peace, and one of them, 
 as if sent from Heaven, chanting, sang: 
 
 "Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse," and 
 all the others followed. 1 
 
 a In white raiment 
 
 33 The candlesticks. 
 
 *The candlesticks signify the seven spirits of God which 
 belong in the first Heaven, his dwelling place, the Empyrean. 
 The constellation of the Bear, with its seven stars, is figura- 
 tively used, and the Pole star, and the mariner, and the sea 
 of life, are all figuratively employed, and carry clear implica- 
 tions. The four and twenty Elders represent the inspired 
 books of the Old Testament, and the Chariot is the Church. 
 The words sung are from the Song of Solomon, iv :8.
 
 DANTE 243 
 
 As the blessed at the last trump shall rise .swiftly 
 from the grave, singing Hallelujah with mortal voice 
 restored, so, at the summons of the great Elder, 
 there uprose upon the divine chariot a hundred min- 
 isters and messengers of life eternal. All were 
 saying : 
 
 "Blessed is he that cometh;" 2 
 
 And, scattering flowers ; 
 
 "With generous hands, O give ye your lilies." 3 
 
 Ere now, at dawn, I have seen the eastern sky 
 all rosy, and the other parts of Heaven beautiful 
 and clear, and the sun, rising, remain long while 
 tempered behind mists. Under such a sky, and 
 within a cloud of flowers, uptossed by angel hands, 
 and falling all about, a lady with olive-crown above 
 a white veil, and robe of flame-color, beneath a 
 green mantle, appeared to me. 4 And my spirit 
 which for so long a time 5 had not been broken down, 
 
 2 Matthew xxi :9. 
 
 'Virgil JEn. Vi. 884. Dante, by introducing this charming 
 line pays a great honor to his dear poet When Virgil is 
 about to go, and Beatrice is about to come, here in the Earthly 
 Paradise, and in the very presence of the Church, Dante puts 
 words from the Song of Solomon, and from the ^Lneid, into 
 the mouths of the Elders. The doing of this thing, and the 
 way of its doing, are alike lovely. 
 
 "Tutti diccan: Benedicitus, qui vents; 
 E fior'gittando di sofra e dintorno: 
 Manibus o date lilia plenis." 
 
 Purgatorio XXX 19-22. 
 
 4 The olive means peace and wisdom. White, green and 
 flame or crimson, are the colors of Faith, Hope and Charity. 
 * Beatrice had been dead ten years.
 
 244 DANTE 
 
 was vanquished by her presence, not because I saw 6 
 her, but because of the inconceivable effect she had 
 on me, I felt the tremendous power of the love of 
 bygone days. 
 
 As soon as this ennobling power, to which even in 
 boyhood I had yielded entire allegiance, made itself 
 known, I turned with that confidence which makes 
 a frightened child run to his mother, to say to Vir- 
 gil: 
 
 "Not a drop of blood is in me but trembles ; I rec- 
 ognize the signals of the ancient flame." 7 
 
 But Virgil had taken himself away; Virgil, be- 
 loved father; Virgil, to whom, for my salvation, I 
 had surrendered myself completely. Nor was that 
 Earthly Paradise, which our first mother lost us, 
 compensation enough to make me hold back the 
 tears, which flowed down dark across my dew- 
 washed 8 cheeks. 
 
 "Dante, though Virgil be gone away, weep not, 
 but save your tears, for they must yet flow for other 
 cause." 
 
 As an admiral, standing at prow or stern, reviews 
 his sailors, urging them to do their best, so, at the 
 left side of the chariot when I turned, hearing my 
 
 * Beatrice is still hidden beneath her veil. 
 
 T Dante translates a line from the JEneid, IV. 28, exactly. 
 "Agnosco vctcris vestigia flamma" and in doing so con- 
 tinues the tremendous compliment already spoken of in 
 Note 3. 
 
 8 See Canto I, page 145.
 
 DANTE 245 
 
 own name which of necessity is here set down I 
 beheld the lady who had first appeared to me amid 
 the angelic cloud of flowers, her eyes turned square 
 upon me from across the stream. Although the 
 veil which fell from her olive chaplet, partially con- 
 cealed her, regal in aspect, and still austere in mien, 
 she continued, speaking as one who holds back his 
 warmest words : 
 
 "Look carefully at me: truly I am, I am indeed 
 Beatrice. How could you approach this mountain? 
 Did you not know that here man is happy ?" 
 
 My eyes chopped to the clear stream, but, seeing 
 myself in it, I turned them to the grass, so great 
 was the shame upon my brow. She seemed stern, 
 as a mother sometimes seems to her son, for bitter 
 is the taste of sharp pity. 
 
 She kept silence, and all at once the angels 
 chanted : 
 
 "In Thee, O Lord, 'do I put my trust ;" but beyond 
 the line, "Thou hast set my feet in a large room," 
 they did not sing. 9 Even as the snow, frozen, blown, 
 and packed by the Sclavonian winds, among the 
 living rafters, 10 on the ridge of Italy, later when 
 warm winds blow, melts, and trickles through itself, 
 and the Earth steams, such was I, who, neither shed 
 tears, nor sighed, before the song of those creatures 
 whose chants are tuned eternally to the music of the 
 
 ' Psalm xxxi :l-8. 
 
 "The trees upon the Apennines.
 
 246 DANTE 
 
 spheres. But when in their sweet harmonies I real- 
 ized there was greater pity for me than if they had 
 said: "Lady, why do you so shame him?" the ice 
 that was fixed hard around my heart turned to steam 
 and water, and, in anguish, surged forth from my 
 breast through mouth and eyes. 
 
 Beatrice speaks to the angels, saying : 
 
 "For a time I supported him with my face ; and, 
 showing him my young eyes, I led him in the right 
 way. When I had come to the threshold of my 
 second age, 11 changing mortal for immortal life, he 
 abandoned me and gave himself to others. When 
 I had risen from flesh to spirit, and my beauty and 
 my virtue were increased, I became less dear and 
 pleasing to him, and he turned his feet from the 
 right path, in pursuit of seeming, but not real, 
 good, which pays no promise in full. Nor were the 
 heavenly warnings which I obtained for him, 
 dreams and inspirations, of avail to call him back, 
 so little did he heed them. So low had he fallen 
 that every plan for his salvation was insufficient, 
 save showing him the damned. To bring this to 
 pass I visited the gate of the dead, and to that one 12 
 who guided him up hither, I prayed with tears. 
 
 "God's high command would be transgressed, if 
 Lethe should be crossed, and its water should be 
 
 11 She was leaving youth at the time her death occurred. 
 "VirgiL
 
 DANTE 247, 
 
 quaffed without the tax of such repentance as is 
 paid with tears." 
 
 CANTO XXXI 
 
 "O you who are on the far side of this sacred 
 stream," said she, continuing without break, and 
 turning the point of her argument upon me, which 
 even edgewise had cut so keenly : 
 
 "Say, say, if this is true? to such a tremendous 
 accusation your own confession must be made." 
 
 My faculties were so confused, that my voice, 
 rising, died before it reached my lips. She waited 
 a little, then said : 
 
 "What are you thinking about ? Answer me, for 
 this water has not yet washed away the bitter mem- 
 ories in your heart." 
 
 Shame and fear together forced such a faint 
 "Yes" from me, that, to hear it, her eyes must needs 
 have read my lips. 
 
 Beatrice goes on and chides him still further, 
 saying : 
 
 "And what allurements, or what compensations, 
 did other faces promise that they could lead you 
 astray ?" 
 
 Heaving a dismal sigh, I had scarcely voice 
 enough to answer, and, only with difficulty, could my 
 lips utter it. In tears I said :
 
 248 DANTE 
 
 "The present things of life, and the deceitful 
 pleasures of Earth led me astray, so soon as your 
 face was hidden." 
 
 She said : 
 
 "Had you kept silence, or had you denied what 
 you have confessed, your sin would be no less evi- 
 dent, by such a Judge is it known. But when the 
 accusation of sin bursts from the sinner's own lips, 
 then in our Court, the grindstone turns back against 
 the edge. 1 But in order that you may still feel 
 shame for the error of your ways, and that when 
 you again hear the Sirens you may be stronger, dry 
 your tears, and listen; for you shall hear how my 
 buried flesh should have led you in the opposite 
 course. Never did nature or art set such pleasure 
 before you as the fair form I had in life, and 
 which now is dust. But if supreme joy was taken 
 from you by my death, what mortal thing should 
 afterward have moved your love? You should in- 
 deed have risen at the first arrow-prick of mor- 
 tality, after me who had put on immortality/' 
 
 As children, silent with shame, stand, looking on 
 the ground, listening, conscience-stricken, and re- 
 pentant, so I stood. And she said : 
 
 "Since hearing grieves you, lift up your beard and 
 you shall suffer greater grief through seeing." 
 
 *In the court of Heaven the grindstone turns with the 
 sword of justice, so that the edge grows ever sharper; but 
 when confession comes it turns the stone back, that is, blunts 
 the edge of the sword.
 
 DANTE 249 
 
 Easier is a sturdy oak uprooted by a north, or 
 southeast wind, than it was for me to lift my chin 
 at her command. And when by the beard she asked 
 for my eyes, full well I understood the sting of her 
 allusion. 2 And when I had lifted my face, I saw 
 that the angels had ceased strewing flowers, and my 
 eyes, as yet but little reassured, saw Beatrice turned 
 toward the animal that is one person only, in two- 
 fold nature. 3 Even beneath her veil, and beyond the 
 stream, she seemed to me to more exceed her mor- 
 tal beauty than on Earth she surpassed the beauty 
 of all others. The nettle of repentance so stung me, 
 that of all other things* that which had gained most 
 of my love was that which now I most abhorred. 
 So overcome was I by self-acknowledged guilt that 
 I swooned, and what I then became she 5 knows, 
 who was the cause. 
 
 Then when I came back to consciousness I saw 
 standing over me the lady w r hom I had discovered, 
 wandering, solitary, and she was saying : 
 
 "Hold to me, hold to me." 
 
 She had drawn me into the stream up to the 
 throat, and was dragging me after her, she herself 
 
 'Dante, although he had a beard, and was a man, still 
 lacked the wisdom and restraint which should accompany 
 manhood, is the meaning. 
 
 "The Griffon, Christ, one person in twofold nature, i. e., 
 God, and man. 
 
 * Whatever had attracted him most, after the death of 
 Beatrice, is what he now most hates. 
 
 * Beatrice.
 
 250 DANTE 
 
 moving on the water light as a shuttle. Nearing 
 the blessed shore 6 I heard, "Purge me," 7 so sweetly 
 chanted, that I can not recall it, and much less can 
 I write it. The beautiful lady opened her arms, put 
 them about my head, and immersed me so that I was 
 obliged to swallow the water. Then she drew me 
 forth, and led me, still wet, within the circle of the 
 four beautiful creatures, 8 and each of them put her 
 arm about me. 
 
 "Here we are nymphs, and in Heaven we are 
 stars; 9 before Beatrice descended to Earth we were 
 appointed to be her handmaids. We will lead you 
 to her lovely eyes, but in order to see the light of 
 joy that is in them, your vision must be quickened 
 by the three, on the far side of the chariot, whose 
 insight is deeper than ours." 10 
 
 Singing these sentences, they began ; then led me 
 to the breast of the Griffon, where Beatrice was 
 standing, turned toward us. 
 
 "See to it," said they, "that you stint not your 
 gaze; we have set you before the emeralds, 11 whence, 
 
 * When he entered the Earthly Paradise. Blessed shore be- 
 cause that on which Beatrice is standing. 
 
 1 "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean : wash me, and 
 I shall be whiter than snow." Psalm li :7. 
 
 8 Justice, Temperance, Prudence and Fortitude. 
 
 "These four (see Note 8), the Cardinal Virtues, lead up to 
 Theology, the science of heavenly' things. They are the four 
 bright stars (see Purg. VIII), which threw such strong light 
 on the face of Cato, see Purg. I. 
 
 "Faith, Hope and Charity, the virtues needed for pene- 
 trating the mysteries that underlie Theology. 
 
 u The eyes of Beatrice. Dante more -ihati pnce refers to
 
 DANTE 251 
 
 in days gone "by, Love drew his darts against 
 you." 
 
 A thousand desires hotter than fire riveted my 
 eyes upon her eyes, that now, for me, again were 
 shining. But they remained fixed upon the Griffon. 
 In them I beheld the twofold animal reflected as 
 brightly as the sun in a mirror, first one, and then 
 his other nature. 12 
 
 Think, Reader, if I marveled when I saw the 
 thing remain motionless in itself, and yet, in its re- 
 flection, undergo change. 
 
 While my soul, o'erflowing with awe and glad- 
 ness, was feasting on that food which both satisfies 
 and whets the appetite, those other three came for- 
 ward. Their bearing showed that they were of a 
 more exalted order, as they danced to the caroling 
 of the angels. The words they sang were : 
 
 "Turn, turn your eyes, O Beatrice, upon your 
 faithful one, who has come so far to see you. Of 
 your grace grant us the grace of unveiling your 
 mouth 13 to him, so that he may see the second beauty 
 which you conceal." 
 
 O splendor of living and everlasting light! Who 
 is there who ever grew pale in the shadows of Par- 
 
 the green color of her eyes. Longfellow says that green eyes 
 are praised by Spanish poets and by poets of others countries 
 too. 
 
 "An eagle, madam, 
 
 Hath not so green, so quick, so fair an eye, 
 As Paris hath." Romeo ttnd Juliet, Act III, Sc. v. 
 M The human and the divine. 
 
 "Her eyes are demonstratin of truth; the smile of her 
 mouth persuasion to truth.
 
 252 DANTE 
 
 nassus, or drunk at its well, that would not have a 
 mind o'erburdened were he to attempt to picture 
 you as you appeared, disclosed to full view, in that 
 place where the harmony of Heaven enfolds you? 
 
 CANTO XXXII 
 
 My eyes were so fixed and intent upon satisfying 
 their ten years' thirst, that my other senses alto- 
 gether lapsed. To right and left everything was 
 equally indifferent to me, so completely did her 
 saintly smile enthrall my vision in its former toils. 
 
 The three Virtues, Faith, Hope and Charity, tell 
 Dante that he is neglecting other important things 
 in his rapt delight at seeing Beatrice. Thereupon 
 he recovers from the dazzling effect of her presence 
 and sees that ; 
 
 the glorious procession had wheeled upon its right 
 flank, and was returning with the sun and the seven 
 candlesticks in its face. 
 
 Presently the Virtues, three in one, and four in 
 the other group, return to their stations beside the 
 wheels of the chariot, 
 
 and the Griffon moved his holy burden, but so care- 
 fully that not a feather of him shook. The fair
 
 DANTE 253 
 
 lady 1 who had drawn me through the stream, and 
 Statius, and I, followed at the right wheel. Thus, 
 we made our progress through that high forest, 
 empty of people because of her who trusted to the 
 serpent, the song of angels being music for our 
 march. 
 
 They have advanced but a short way when, 
 
 Beatrice descended, 2 and I heard all, complaining, 
 murmur, 3 "Adam !" Then they circled about a tree 4 
 whose every bough was stripped of flower and leaf. 
 
 Then the saints declare the Griffon blessed be- 
 cause he does not strip off the bark, or taste of the 
 tree, which, sweet to the lips, brings suffering later 
 on. To this declaration the Griffon answers : 
 
 "It is so, that the seed of all righteousness must 
 be preserved." 
 
 And, turning to the pole by which he had drawn 
 the chariot, he dragged it to the foot of the bare 
 tree, and there fastened, what was the same as it- 
 self. 5 
 
 1 Matilda. 
 
 ' From the chariot. The act signifies obedience, the opposite 
 of Eve's procedure. 
 
 * Because of the results of his disobedience, sin came into 
 the world. 
 
 4 The Tree of Knowledge. 
 
 * The pole was wood like the tree, and, according to an 
 ancient legend, the Cross was made out of it
 
 254 DANTE 
 
 As the trees of Earth in spring begin to swell, and 
 each takes on its natural tinge, so did this tree, 
 whose branches had been bare, bud forth and take 
 on a color that was paler than roses but deeper than 
 violets. I did not understand, nor on Earth is sung, 
 the hymn which that assembly then chanted, nor 
 could I catch the melody to its close. 
 
 For this reason Dante falls asleep. Later he is 
 waked by a dazzling light, and voices that call : 
 
 "Arise, what is this that you are doing?" 
 
 As when Peter, and John, and James, taken to 
 behold the Transfiguration, fell asleep, and were 
 aroused at the word by which infinitely more pro- 
 found slumbers have been broken, 6 saw their com- 
 pany lessened by the departure of Moses and Elias, 
 and their Master's raiment changed, 7 so did I come 
 to myself, and see standing over me that compas- 
 sionate lady 8 who had guided my steps along the 
 margin of the stream. Utterly confused, I said : 
 
 "Where is Beatrice?" 
 
 And she : 
 
 "Behold her under the new leaves, sitting at the 
 root of the tree. Behold the company that encircles 
 her while the others, with song of sweeter tone and 
 deeper meaning, go on high, following the Griffon. 
 
 'The word of Christ waking the dead to life. 
 T Matthew xvii :l-8. 
 ' Matilda.
 
 DANTE 255 
 
 "In this forest you shall dwell but little while, but 
 eternally with me shall you be a citizen of that Rome 
 of which Christ is a Roman. Therefore, for the 
 sake of the world, the ways of which are evil, keep 
 your eyes fixed on the chariot ; and mind you write 
 what you see when you shall have returned to 
 Earth." 
 
 Beatrice said these words, and I who held her 
 commands in reverence, gave mind and eye to that 
 which she designated. I saw Jove's bird swoop 
 down through the tree, tearing off bark, flowers 
 and leaves. He struck the chariot with all his might. 
 It reeled like a ship in a gale, driven now to star- 
 board, now to port, by the waves. 9 Then I saw 
 a she fox, lean for want of good food, leap into 
 the triumphal car, but, rebuking her for her ugly 
 sins, my lady put her to such flight as her fleshless 
 bones would allow. 10 Then I saw the Eagle, as he 
 had before, come down into the chariot and leave 
 it covered with his feathers. And from Heaven 
 there came such a voice as issues from a sore-grieved 
 heart, and said : 
 
 "O my little ship, with what an evil cargo are 
 you laden I" 11 
 
 Then I thought that the ground yawned between 
 
 'This signifies the persecution of the early Church by the 
 emperors. 
 
 10 Beatrice as the symbol of theology, the knowledge of 
 divine things, puts heresy, the fox, to rout. 
 
 "This refers to the F.mperor Constantine's supposed dona- 
 tion, or the endowing of the Church with worldly possessions.
 
 256 DANTE 
 
 the wheels, and that a dragon came forth and thrust 
 his tail upward through the chariot, and that he 
 drew back his tail, as a wasp his sting, and that 
 he tore off part of the floor and went his evil way. 12 
 What was left of the chariot, as good Earth with 
 grass, covered itself with new feathers, given per- 
 chance with holy and well-meant purpose. Both the 
 wheels and the pole were covered in less time than 
 it takes a sigh to pass the lips. 13 Thus transformed, 
 the sacred structure grew heads on all its parts, 
 three on the pole, and one on each corner. The 
 former had horns like oxen, but the four had each 
 a single horn upon the forehead. 14 Such a monster 
 was never seen before. Secure as a citadel on some 
 lofty mountain, there appeared, sitting on the char- 
 iot, a disheveled harlot, 15 fierce and brazen. And 
 as if to guard against her being taken from him, I 
 saw a giant standing at her side, and now and then 
 they kissed each other. But, because she cast her 
 wanton, roving eye on me, that savage and unlawful 
 lover scourged her from head to foot. 16 Then, full 
 
 "This probably refers to a schism of the Church in the 
 ninth century. 
 
 "The refeathering means the increase of donations which 
 were made to the Church, perhaps well meant; i. e., for the 
 good of the Church, and not for selfish or ulterior ends. 
 
 "These heads signify the deadly sins, Pride, Envy, Anger, 
 on the pole, and Sloth, Avarice, Gluttony and Lust at the 
 corners, their development and growth being due to the 
 wealth and worldly power which the Church had acquired. 
 
 15 Revelation xviii :3. The imagery throughout this re- 
 markable figurative history of the Church is taken from the 
 same source. 
 
 M The harlot means the Pope, and the giant the king of
 
 DANTE 257 
 
 of jealousy, and mad with rage, he loosed the mon- 
 ster, and dragged it so far into the wood that the 
 forest itself shielded me from the harlot, and this 
 newly created beast. 17 
 
 CANTO XXXIII 
 
 This canto opens with a splendid lament over 
 the outrages which the Church on Earth is suf- 
 fering at the hands of temporal monarchs. Beatrice 
 prophesies about the restoration of the Empire, and 
 then follows that lovely passage describing Dante's 
 going through Eunoe, and being cleansed alike of 
 sin, and of the memory of sin, and so at last pre- 
 pared to enter Heaven. The canto closes Purgatory 
 with the same quiet as that with which Hell closes, 
 and the final word here, as in Hell, is "stelle," stars. 
 It is no vain image, that which calls The Divine 
 Comedy a "starry pointing pyramid." 
 
 "O God, the heathen are come," 1 the ladies be- 
 gan, phon and antiphon, now the three, now the 
 four, this sweet anthem with tears: and Beatrice, 
 sighing and compassionate, listened to them with a 
 countenance but little less changed than Mary's as 
 
 France, referring probably to the French jealousy of any 
 influence with the Papacy save its own. 
 
 " Dragging the chariot, now become a beast, away from the 
 tree to which the Griffon had left it tethered, may mean the 
 removal of the Papacy from Rome to Avignon, in 1305. 
 
 *The seven Virtues (the ladies) sing the whole of the 
 seventy-ninth Psalm of which this line is the beginning.
 
 258 DANTE 
 
 she stood beside the cross. But when the other vir- 
 gins made way for her to speak, risen erect she an- 
 swered, red as fire: 
 
 " 'A little while, and ye shall not see me :' my be- 
 loved Sisters, 'and again, a little while, and ye shall 
 see me.' " 2 
 
 Then she sent the seven on before, and by the 
 merest gesture, made me, and the Lady Matilda, 
 and Statius, who still remained, know that we were 
 to follow her. Thus she moved forward, and I do 
 not think that she had taken her tenth step, when 
 she turned her eyes full on mine and said, with 
 countenance serene: 
 
 "Come more forward, so that if I speak to you, 
 you may be where you can hear." 
 
 So soon as I was at her side as I should be, she 
 said to me: 
 
 "Brother, why do you not dare to ask questions 
 of me, now that you are with me?" 
 
 Dante replies to Beatrice that she knows what 
 he wishes to be told, and what he should be told. 
 Thereupon she begins to explain the significance of 
 what he has just seen. 
 
 "Know that the vessel which the serpent broke, 
 
 2 John xvi:16. Beatrice, crimson with indignation over the 
 abuses of the Church, signified by the Psalm which she has 
 heard, answers with these words, which are meant in part 
 as prophecy, and part as an inspiration for the return of the 
 Papacy to Rome.
 
 DANTE 259 
 
 was, and is not, 8 but let him whose fault it is be 
 sure that the vengeance of God is not to be put 
 off by any sop. The Eagle that left its feathers on 
 the car, whereby it became a monster, and later a 
 prey,* shall not be forever without an heir, for I 
 see clearly, and beyond doubt the stars tell it, a time 
 when, secure against every obstacle and hindrance, 
 those sent by God shall slay the harlot and the giant 
 who is sinning with her. Mark well, and as my 
 words were uttered, tell them, to those who are in 
 that life which is a race unto death. And when 
 you write them down, remember not to hide the 
 plight in which you saw the tree which has been 
 twice despoiled. 5 Whoever robs or breaks it, with 
 blasphemous act offends God, Who, and for His 
 own use, created it holy." 
 
 The time approaches noon and Dante says that, 
 
 The seven ladies stopped on the edge of a pale 
 shadow such as high mountains throw across icy 
 streams flowing beneath dark green needles and 
 black boughs. In front of them it seemed to me 
 that I saw Euphrates and Tigris issuing from one 
 source, and, like friends, depart slowly from each 
 other. 
 
 "O Light, O Glory of the human race, what is 
 
 1 The chariot. "The beast that thou sawest was, and is not" 
 Revelation xvii :8. 
 4 Of the giant. 
 8 Once by Adam, and once by the giant.
 
 260 DANTE 
 
 this water which here gushes forth from one spring, 
 and then divides itself in two?" 
 
 To my petition came the answer : 
 - "Pray, Matilda, to tell it you." 
 
 At this, that beautiful lady, like one who frees 
 himself of blame, replied : 
 
 "This and other things have I told him, and I am 
 sure that the waters of Lethe have not washed them 
 from his memory." 
 
 And Beatrice : 
 
 "It may be that some heavier care, which often- 
 times destroys the memory, has clouded his inner 
 vision. But behold Eunoe which yonder gushes 
 forth ; as is your custom lead him to it, and revive 
 his failing powers." 
 
 Like a gentle soul which offers no excuse, but 
 makes another's will its own as soon as ever that 
 will is manifest, the lovely lady put her hand upon 
 me, moved forward, and to Statius, with the cour- 
 tesy of high breeding, said : "Come with him." 
 
 If, Reader, I had more space for writing, I would, 
 in part at least, sing of that sweet draught which 
 never could have sated me. But in as much as all 
 the leaves allotted to this second canticle are now 
 full, the limits of my art forbid me to go farther. 
 
 From that most sacred water I came forth, re- 
 newed, as trees with spring foliage, purified, and fit 
 to mount unto the stars. 
 
 """Matilda.
 
 PARADISE 
 
 CANTO I 
 
 DANTE brings his trilogy to a close with Para- 
 dise, and therein describes the best that he 
 knows of this world, woman, transfigured; and, so 
 far as very wonderful words will allow, God. God- 
 head, and perfect humanity, creature, and condi- 
 tion, both unknowable, yet believed in by number- 
 less men, Dante manages to make seem real. In 
 one place he says we attribute hands and feet to 
 God and mean something else. And so do we all, 
 even when we "belittle Him with sex." Nor are 
 saints much easier to conceive of and to under- 
 stand ; yet they, too, in Dante's Paradise, are made 
 convincing. So likewise is the place itself, which 
 eye has not seen, as Dante pictures it in the thirty- 
 three cantos of his third canticle. 
 
 Feeling, beauty, reason, of themselves intense, 
 and molten into a perfect harmony, together with 
 light, sound, fragrance and motion, are the mate- 
 rials out of which the poet has woven the lovely 
 web of words for which praise borders upon im- 
 pertinence. But what must those thoughts have 
 
 261
 
 262 
 
 DANTE 
 
 Ctvt/tJ of- 
 
 PARADISE
 
 DANTE 263 
 
 been like, which filled Dante's head, and heart, if 
 we believe, with Shelley, that, "when composition 
 begins, inspiration is already on the decline, and 
 the most glorious poetry that has ever been com- 
 municated to the world is probably a feeble shadow 
 of the original conceptions of the poet"! On one 
 hand, as the Paradise advances, he must be little 
 interested in words, and all of power they may 
 hold, who does not realize that he is in the presence 
 of a master of the "just shades of language." On 
 the other, and vastly more important hand, he must 
 be hard of heart, as he reads on, who does not read 
 anew the vital meaning of Wordsworth's lines : 
 
 "In such access of mind, in such high hour 
 Of visitation from the living God 
 Thought was not; in enjoyment it expired." 
 
 And finally, it is as fortunate, as it is blessed, for 
 the man for whom "verses" really are "as spells 
 which unseal the inmost enchanted fountains of de- 
 light which is the grief of love. It is impossible to 
 feel them without becoming a portion of that beauty 
 which we contemplate." 
 
 The glory of Him who moves all things pene- 
 trates the whole universe and shines in one part 
 more, and in another less. I have been in that 
 Heaven which receives the most of His light, and 
 therein I saw things which he who returns to Earth 
 has neither the knowledge nor the power to tell, be-
 
 264 DANTE 
 
 i 
 
 cause, as our soul draws near to the attainment of 
 its utmost desire, which is to behold God, under- 
 standing becomes so profound that memory can not 
 keep pace with it. So much, however, of the blessed 
 realm as my mind retains shall now become the sub- 
 ject of my song. 
 
 O supreme Apollo, for this last effort grant me 
 such strength as you require of him who is to win 
 the much loved laurel. Thus far one summit of 
 Parnassus has sufficed me, but I need the help of 
 both 1 for my remaining labor. Enter into my heart 
 and make me such as you yourself were in the con- 
 test with Marsyas. 2 O divine Power, if you but 
 grant me so much of your spirit as will enable me to 
 draw the picture of the Blessed Realm, as it is now 
 stamped upon my mind, you shall see me approach 
 your chosen laurel and crown myself with those 
 leaves for which my subject and you have made me 
 worthy. So seldom, Father, are they plucked, for 
 triumph of Caesar, or of poet, fault and shame of 
 human choosing, that the Peneian leaf ought to 
 bring gladness to the joyous Delphic god whenever 
 poetry makes any man want to be crowned with it. 
 Great flame may follow a little spark ; after me per- 
 
 1 Parnassus had two peaks, one the Muses'; the other, 
 Apollo's. Dante beseeches the Muses to aid him in singing 
 of Hell and Purgatory, but for his Paradise he calls on Apollo 
 as well. 
 
 2 Capable of victory as Apollo was when he overcame 
 Marsyas.
 
 DANTE 265 
 
 haps some one will pray a prayer more worthy 
 Cyrrha's 3 granting. 
 
 After these opening passages, one, a sort of 
 proem, in which Dante tells us what his subject is 
 to be, and the other, a solemn invocation to Apollo 
 and the Muses, he continues with an account of his 
 own transhumanizing whereby he became such a 
 being as can ascend through the spheres. And this 
 is what he now does, with Beatrice for guide. The 
 hour is noon, and the season is spring, Easter but 
 short time past. He entered Hell at sundown, and 
 Purgatory at dawn, least, and most hopeful, hours 
 of the twenty- four. But "sacred, high, eternal 
 noon," what Dante has himself described as "the 
 noblest hour of all the day," he chooses for the 
 ascent into glory. 
 
 I saw Beatrice gazing upon the sun. Never did 
 eagle so fix himself upon it. And all at once day 
 seemed to be added unto day, as if He who has the 
 power had adorned the heavens with a second sun. 
 
 In this passage Dante rises above himself as every 
 man, and most of all men, a poet, must, when in the 
 practise of any one of the beautiful arts he takes the 
 last step in the gradus ad Parnassum. He makes 
 
 *Cyrrha, a city dedicated to Apollo, and situated near the 
 foot of Parnassus.
 
 266 DANTE 
 
 the impossible seem possible, and thereby makes his 
 approach into Paradise seem real. He presents an 
 inconceivable thing in such a guise that it becomes 
 conceivable. No man ever came closer to describing 
 what eye hath not seen nor ear heard. Wordsworth 
 came just as close when, in the sixth book of The 
 Prelude, he also took the last step in the ascent of 
 Parnassus, and wrote the lines : 
 
 "... a joy 
 
 Above all joys, that seemed another morn 
 Risen on midnoon ;" 
 
 Beatrice was standing, her gaze entirely centered 
 on the eternal spheres, and I, with mine, wholly 
 upon her. Looking at her I was transformed as 
 Glaucus was at the time when he tasted the herb 
 that changed him into a god. The change from an 
 earthly to a heavenly body can not be described in 
 words ; the example of Glaucus must satisfy him for 
 whom Divine Grace holds such experience in store. 
 If I were nought but living soul, which is the last 
 part of man created, O Love that governs Heaven, 
 well do You know that it was Your light, shining 
 through the eyes of Beatrice, which carried me on 
 high. When that ceaseless turning, which the heav- 
 enly spheres got from You, because of their desire 
 for You, attracted me by its harmony, which is of 
 your tuning and composing, to my eyes the whole 
 celestial realm appeared to be one vast sea of flame, 
 fired by the sun.
 
 DANTE 267 
 
 The unknown quality of this harmony, and the 
 fierceness of this light, gave me such thirst for 
 knowledge as I had never before experienced. Be- 
 cause of which, Beatrice, who saw me as I see 
 myself, began to answer even before my lips had 
 formed the question. She said: 
 
 "You cloud your understanding with false fan- 
 cies, so that you do not comprehend what you would 
 comprehend, had you rid your mind of them. You 
 are no longer on Earth, as you imagine, but light- 
 ning never made such haste, as you, to return 
 hither." . 
 
 Dante, satisfied with this explanation of the 
 amazing light and the marvelous harmony, immedi- 
 ately demands to know how he, in his solid flesh, 
 has managed to transcend the light air, at which, he 
 tells us that Beatrice, 
 
 sighing for pity, turned her eyes upon me with the 
 expression which comes over a mother's face as 
 she watches her child in the delirium of fever. 
 
 Then follows a difficult explanation, half scien- 
 tific, half philosophical, and by no means satisfac- 
 tory, the essence of which is that God has willed a 
 miracle. The final words are as notable as they 
 are persuasive in their simple loveliness. 
 
 "You should not, if I am right, feel more wonder 
 at your ascent, than at the down-flowing of a stream
 
 268 DANTE 
 
 from the top to the bottom of a mountain. The 
 wonder would be, if, deprived as you now are of 
 the hindrance of sin, you had remained below on 
 Earth, a thing that would be as strange as perfect 
 quiet in fire." 
 
 And herewith she turned her face once more upon 
 the spheres. 
 
 CANTO II 
 
 The Heaven of the Moon. This canto opens with 
 a brief proem of its own. In it Dante likens a man 
 of small learning and imagination to a little vessel, 
 warning all such that, while a boat of this size is 
 good enough for Hell and Purgatory, i. e., to sail 
 them, seas of troublous meaning, it is no proper 
 craft for navigating the depths of meaning in his 
 Paradise. Even following in the wake of a large 
 ship, i. e., of one learned in matters of theology and 
 philosophy, the course may easily be lost by, or be- 
 come impossible for, the little bark, and shipwreck 
 result. 
 
 O you who in a little boat, anxious to listen, have 
 followed my ship, that singing pushes on, now ought 
 you to reverse your course, and return to your own 
 shores. Put not out upon the high sea, because, 
 should you lose me, you would never find your 
 course again. The ocean which I sail was never
 
 DANTE 269 
 
 ploughed by keel. 1 Minerva fills my sails, Apollo 
 steers, and the nine Muses give me my bearings. 2 
 
 You other few who have already reached out for 
 the bread of angels, which is heavenly knowledge, 
 in this realm the bread by which one lives, and by 
 which one never can be surfeited, for your vessel 
 the deep sea is safe, provided you keep so close upon 
 my wake that you do not lose the course. Those 
 glorious sailors who crossed to Colchis were not so 
 dum founded when they saw Jason turn ploughman, 
 as you shall be. 
 
 Beatrice was gazing upward, and my eyes were 
 fixed on her, when, in such time, perchance, as it 
 takes an arrow to fly from the notch, I realized that 
 I had reached a place where a marvelous thing riv- 
 eted my sight. Whereupon she, from whom no 
 thought of mine could be hid, turning toward me, 
 glad as lovely, said : 
 
 "Uplift your grateful thoughts to God, through 
 Whom we have reached the first star." 3 
 
 It seemed to me that a cloud, brilliant, impenetra- 
 ble, solid and smooth, had engulfed us; a cloud, 
 like to a diamond on which the sun strikes. Into 
 
 1 Dante means that what is to follow is no reading for men 
 of little education or any one not addicted to serious thinking. 
 He is in fact saying of himself much the same thing that 
 Goethe said about Michelangelo's voyaging the vast abysses 
 of thought alone. 
 
 1 Minerva is knowledge, and Apollo, God of song, is guide, 
 and the Muses are inspiration, by the aid of all of whom 
 Dante was enabled to write his Paradise. 
 
 *The Heaven of the Moon.
 
 270 DANTE 
 
 itself this eternal pearl received us, precisely as 
 water receives a ray of light, yet remains undivided. 
 
 This is the first of the nine concentric spheres 
 which, in everlasting gyrations, whirl about the 
 Earth as a center. It is the lowest, least important, 
 and nearest to the Earth, of all the Heavens, and de- 
 rives its motion from the least important of the nine 
 orders of hierarchies, the angels, which move in 
 everlasting circles around God. The first stage of 
 Dante's journey through the Heavens, the subject 
 of his Paradise, ends here in the sphere of the moon. 
 
 CANTO III 
 
 This extremely beautiful canto, so quiet, and 
 calm, and sweet, is filled to overflowing with the 
 spirit of content; the spirit and essence of life eter- 
 nal in Paradise, as thought of, and longed for, by 
 devout and faithful Christians in the thirteenth, no 
 less than in the twentieth century. It is the peace 
 which passeth understanding, brought by Dante 
 "into the compass of distinct regard," to do which is 
 within the reach of the greatest artist alone. 
 
 In a letter to his wife, written in 1844, Gladstone 
 quotes the famous line: "In la sua volontade e 
 nostra pace" 1 (In His will is our peace), and adds: 
 "The words are few and simple, and yet they appear 
 
 1 See page 274.
 
 DANTE 271 
 
 to me to have an inexpressible majesty of truth about 
 them, to be almost as if they were spoken from the 
 very mouth of God." 
 
 No more accurate phrase could be written of this 
 third canto than to say of it, that it has "an inex- 
 pressible majesty of truth" about every line of it. 
 The sphere of the moon, and they that dwell therein, 
 together form the subject. 
 
 As in perfect mirrors, or in transparent and tran- 
 quil water, not deep enough to conceal the bottom, 
 the features of our faces are reflected so faintly, 
 that a pearl on a white brow is not more noticeable, 
 in like manner did I see many faces, all eager to 
 speak ; whereat I made the opposite mistake to that 
 which begot love between the man and the fountain. 2 
 
 The moment that I became aware of these faces, 
 assuming that they were reflections, I turned around 
 in order to see the realities, and saw nothing. Then 
 I turned back, and directed my gaze straight into 
 those depths of light which, all smiling, were aglow 
 in the blessed eyes of my sweet guide. 8 
 
 "Marvel not," she said, "that I smile at your 
 
 'Narcissus took his own reflection to be a real person and 
 thereupon fell in love with it. Dante makes the opposite error 
 of thinking the faces reflections of persons standing behind 
 him, when really they are shades come from their dwelling 
 place in the Empyrean Heaven to talk with him here in the 
 sphere of the moon. 
 
 * It must be borne constantly in mind that Beatrice is now 
 Dante's guide.
 
 272 DANTE 
 
 childish ideas, which do not yet confidently rest 
 upon the truth, but, as such ideas always do, get you 
 nowhere. These whom you see are real persons, 
 placed here for failing to keep their vows. Speak 
 with them, listen to them, and believe, because that 
 True Light, which gives them peace, does not per- 
 mit them to turn from it." 
 
 I turned to the shade that seemed keenest to talk, 
 and began, like a man who stumbles because of his 
 own great eagerness : 
 
 "O spirit sure of Paradise, who even in the bright- 
 ness of eternal life art tasting that sweetness which, 
 unless it is tasted, can never be known, do me the 
 transcendent favor of satisfying my wish to know 
 your name and lot." 
 
 To this, with smiling eyes, she quickly answered : 
 
 "Our charity does not close its doors upon a just 
 wish any more than the love of God Himself, Who 
 w r ills that all his court be like Himself. On Earth I 
 was a nun; and if your memory runs back clearly, 
 my being more beautiful now than then, will not 
 prevent your recognizing me ; you will see that I am 
 Piccarda, who, placed here with these other blessed 
 ones, am blest in the slowest sphere. 4 Our desires, 
 which are fired only by that which is pleasing to the 
 
 4 The sphere of the moon, which, being nearest to the Earth 
 and farthest from God, revolves least rapidly of all the 
 spheres, and is, of all of them, least blest. Piccarda Donati, 
 sister of Forese (see Purgatory, Canto XXIV), and a relative 
 of Dante's wife.
 
 DANTE 273 
 
 Holy Spirit, have their blessedness in being placed 
 in accord with His ordering. And this allotted posi- 
 tion, which appears so lowly, is given to us because 
 our vows were neglected and in some respect un- 
 filled." 
 
 To this I replied : "In your glorified faces there 
 is something divine, I understand it not, which 
 makes you different from what you were. This is 
 why I did not remember you at once, but what you 
 say helps me now to recognize you more easily. 
 Tell me, you that are happy here, do you wish for a 
 more exalted place, in order to see more, or to make 
 more friends?" 
 
 Along with the other shades she first smiled a lit- 
 tle, then answered so gladly that she seemed to blaze 
 with the fire of love. 
 
 "Brother, the effect of love is to make our wills 
 content. It causes us to desire only that which we 
 have, and does not spur our longing for anything 
 else. If we wanted to be higher up, our desires 
 would be out of harmony with the will of Him who 
 assigns us to this level, which discord you will see 
 to be impossible in these spheres, if abiding in love 
 is here a necessity, and if you carefully consider the 
 nature of that necessity. 5 Nay, rather, it is the es- 
 sence of this blessed state to exist in perfect concord 
 with the divine will, so that God's will and ours are 
 thus made one. Hence, the way in which we are 
 
 'Love.
 
 274 DANTE 
 
 distributed from low to high throughout this realm, 
 to the entire realm gives satisfaction, even as it does 
 to the King who makes perfect unison of His and 
 our ends. His will is our peace; it is that sea to- 
 ward which all things move whether created by 
 God or made by nature." 8 
 
 Then I saw clearly how everywhere in Heaven is 
 Paradise, even though the grace of the Supreme 
 Good is not poured down equally in every part. 
 
 Dante now begs Piccarda to tell him how it came 
 about that her vow was defective. 
 
 "A young girl I fled from the world in order to 
 follow Saint Clara, 7 and I put on the veil, and 
 pledged myself to the rule of her Order. Later, 
 men more given to evil than good, tore me from the 
 peaceful cloister, and what my life became after 
 this, God knows." 
 
 CANTO IV 
 
 Beatrice continues to discuss the subject of vows 
 in answer to questions which Dante puts to her, one 
 after the other, until the end of the canto. He says : 
 
 6 God created the angels and intellectual powers directly, or 
 at first hand; that part of the universe which is pure spirit. 
 The balance, made up of spirit and matter, is here attributed 
 to nature, which was thought of as His handmaid. In this 
 case nature means the influence of the stars, an agent, so to 
 speak, which intervenes, as it were, between God and that part 
 of the universe which is material. 
 
 7 St. Clara, a friend of St Francis, founded an order of 
 nuns.
 
 DANTE 275 
 
 "I want to know if man can atone for broken 
 vows, by good works, which may have an equivalent 
 weight in Heaven's scales?" 
 
 The answer to this question, given in simple words 
 of great eloquence, comes in Canto V. It is this 
 canto also which contains the ascent to the next 
 Heaven, or sphere, that of Mercury. 
 
 CANTO v 
 
 BEATRICE 
 
 "You wish to know if for an unfulfilled vow 
 enough can be paid in other service, to secure the 
 soul against claim." 1 
 
 So she began, and, like one who does not cease 
 his speaking, she thus continued her holy discourse : 2 
 
 "The greatest gift which God in His bounty 
 granted at creation, and the one most in accord with 
 His own goodness, and the one by which He sets the 
 greatest store, was the freedom of the will, with 
 which the creatures that have intelligence, 8 they all, 
 and they alone, were, and are endowed. Now, if 
 you found your argument on this, the precious char- 
 
 The claim of heavenly justice against one who has sinned. 
 * This passage, dealing in part with the freedom of the will, 
 is of peculiar interest because it lays down clearly the mam 
 principle, the cornerstone in the structure of Dante's religion 
 and philosophy. 
 * Men and angels.
 
 276 DANTE 
 
 acter of a vow will be evident to you, provided it is 
 such that God accepts it when yoQ make it. Be- 
 cause, in confirming the compact b'etween God and 
 man, sacrifice is made of this treasure* which I 
 have just described, and that sacrifice is its own act. 
 What then can be offered in compensation? If you 
 think to turn to a good use for other ends, that vow 
 which you have offered to God for a definite pur- 
 pose, you are setting out to do good works with ill- 
 gotten gains. 
 
 "Let no man lightly make a vow : be faithful, but 
 not obstinate in being so, as Jephthah 5 was in his 
 first offering; he to whom it would have been more 
 credit to say : *I have done wrong/ than, by keeping 
 his vow, to do greater wrong. And equally foolish 
 will you see the great leader 6 of the Greeks to have 
 been, on account of whom Iphigenia was made to 
 suffer because of her fair face, and, both the simple 
 and the wise, who have since heard of the mon- 
 strous sacrifice, to grieve. Let Christians take more 
 thought before they make vows ; be not like a feather 
 to every wind ; think not that every water can wash 
 you. 7 You have the Old and the New Testament, 
 and the Shepherd of the Church to guide you: let 
 
 4 Freedom of the will. 
 
 'Judges xi:30-39. 
 
 * Agamemnon vowed to sacrifice to Diana the loveliest thing 
 born during the year, and this thing proved to be his daugh- 
 ter, Iphigenia. 
 
 T He means that the sin of a broken vow can not be easily 
 cleansed away.
 
 DANTE 277 
 
 this suffice for your salvation. If unrighteous greed 
 urges you to a different course, act like men, and 
 not like silly sheep, so that the Jew among you may 
 not have the laugh on you. 8 Act not like the lamb 
 that leaves its mother's milk, and, innocent and play- 
 ful, works its own destruction." 
 
 Word for word, as I have written, did 'Beatrice 
 speak to me; then, all eagerness, she again lifted her 
 gaze to the Empyrean. Her silence, and the change 
 which had come over her countenance, imposed 
 silence on my thirsty mind which already had more 
 questions to be answered. Therewith, as an arrow 
 hits the mark before the bowstring has ceased to 
 quiver, we sped on into the second realm. 9 
 
 On entering the Heaven of Mercury Dante be- 
 holds "more than a thousand glorious lights draw- 
 ing toward him," and from each he hears an excla- 
 mation of joy at his coming, "which shall increase 
 our loves," meaning that every added soul in Para- 
 'dise is an additional object on which the citizens of 
 Heaven may exercise their love, love being a qual- 
 ity that is strengthened, like muscles or memory, by 
 exercise. The divine effulgence makes it plain that 
 
 8 The Jews, who live by the Old Testament alone, keep their 
 vows. If you who have more light, i. e., Christians, make 
 religious vows, for selfish ends, and break them, then you will 
 be despised by the Jews. 
 
 9 The Heaven of Mercury.
 
 278 DANTE 
 
 any questions Dante may care to ask will be an- 
 swered gladly, and Beatrice confirms this by saying: 
 
 CANTO VI 
 
 "Speak, speak securely, and trust even as to gods." 
 
 Immediately the spirit of Justinian, the emperor, 
 his features showing plainly, appears in the light 
 that first bade Dante ask what he would. Out of 
 his mouth then comes the history of the Roman Em- 
 pire from JEneas to the time of Dante, a piece of 
 writing in itself magnificent enough to suit so mag- 
 nificent a subject, prefaced by a bit of glorious hu- 
 mility on the part of Justinian who declares that in 
 Heaven what you were alone counts, not who you 
 were; in a word, that all earthly distinctions are 
 wiped out. If there is such a thing as epic history, 
 and why should there not be such a thing, surely 
 here is an example. The very words march like tri- 
 umphant legions; the ideas move forward with im- 
 perial grandeur; the impact of meaning in the whole 
 is as the very essence of victory. 
 
 "After Constantine turned the Eagle counter to 
 the course of the heavens, 1 which it had followed in 
 
 1 Constantine carried the Imperial Eagle eastward, and set it 
 up, i. e., established the Imperial capitol, on the Bosphorus. 
 The march of Empire previously had been westward. This 
 was in 324 A. D. and Justinian, who is speaking, did not 
 ascend the throne until 527.
 
 DANTE 279 
 
 the steps of him of old who took Lavinia to \vife, 2 
 for two centuries and more did that bird of God 
 hover over the frontiers of Europe, close by the 
 mountains of Troy, whence it had originally winged 
 its flight. From that place it governed the world, 
 beneath the shadow of its sacred wings, from one 
 imperial hand to another, until at last it lighted upon 
 mine. Caesar I was, and am Justinian, who, in- 
 spired by the Holy Spirit, purged the laws of those 
 that were superfluous and useless. Prior to the time 
 I undertook this work, I believed that there was but 
 one nature in Christ, not more, 3 and with that belief 
 I was satisfied, but the blessed Agapetus, who was 
 the supreme shepherd, 4 by his words led me to the 
 true faith. I believed him; and that which his be- 
 lief held I now see as clearly as you see that of two 
 contradictory assertions one must be false and the 
 other true. As soon as I moved in accord with the 
 Church, it pleased God, in His grace, to inspire me 
 to undertake the exalted labor, 5 and I gave myself 
 unreservedly to it. Military concerns I entrusted 
 to my Belisarius with whom the right hand of 
 Heaven was so completely joined as to make it evi- 
 dent that I need have no further care." 
 
 Thus far Justinian has occupied himself with tell- 
 
 * ./Eneas, father of the Roman people. 
 
 'The divine nature, and the human, in Christ, i. e., Christ 
 as God, and as man. 
 The Pope. 
 'Justinian's famous codification of the Roman law.
 
 280 DANTE 
 
 ing his own history. Now he turns his attention 
 to narrating the history of the Empire, and discours- 
 ing on the sin that is committed when a human being 
 either attempts to usurp the power of the Empire, 
 seize its ensign, the Eagle, for his own ends, or make 
 war against it, which things Dante saw attempted, 
 on all sides, by the politicians of his own time. 
 Justinian begins the story with the day, 
 
 when Pallas 6 died in order to give the Eagle a king- 
 dom. 
 
 "You know how it dwelt in Alba for three hun- 
 dred years and more until finally, for its sake, the 
 three fought against the three. 7 You know what it 
 accomplished under its seven kings, subduing the 
 neighboring tribes, from the time when the Sabine 
 women were outraged, down to the woe of Lucre- 
 tia. You know what it achieved when those illus- 
 trious Romans bore it against Brennus, Pyrrhus, 
 and the other princes and allies, because of which 
 Torquatus, and Quinctius, who was named from his 
 curly hair, the Decii and the Fabii won the fame 
 which I rejoice to immortalize. Low in the dust 
 it laid the pride of the Carthaginians, who, under 
 leadership of Hannibal, crossed the Alpine peaks 
 whence flows the Po. Scipio and Pompey in their 
 youth were victorious under it, and bitter did it 
 
 8 Son of the King of Latium, sent to aid ^Eneas. 
 * The Horatii and Curatii.
 
 DANTE 281 
 
 prove to that hill 8 at whose foot you first saw the 
 light. Then, close on the time when it was the will 
 of Heaven that all the world should be at peace 
 like itself, 9 Caesar, at Rome's behest, assumed it, 10 
 and what it then did from the Var to the Rhine, the 
 Isere witnessed and the Saone, and the Seine, and 
 every valley which helps fill the Rhone. The deeds 
 it wrought when it went forth from Ravenna, and 
 crossed the Rubicon were so rapid that neither 
 tongue nor pen could follow. On Spain it wheeled 
 its legions ; then toward Durazzo, and smote Phar- 
 salia so that the blow was felt as far as the warm 
 Nile. Once more it looked on Antandros, 11 and the 
 Simois, whence it had first set forth, and where 
 Hector lies, and evil for Ptolemy proved the hour 
 of its arousing. Thence it swooped swiftly down 
 on Juba, and after that returned to your west 12 
 where it heard the Pompeian trumpets. 13 Of what it 
 
 8 Dante was born in Florence, which lies under the hill of 
 Fiesole, on which, tradition says, Cataline's army had head- 
 quarters. The Romans destroyed the town of Fiesole. 
 
 ' The universal peace at the coming of Christ 
 
 "No war, or battail's sound 
 Was heard the world around ;" 
 
 Milton, Ode on Nativity. 
 
 10 It, here, as throughout this entire passage, refers to the 
 Eagle as ensign of the Roman state. 
 
 " The place where ^Eneas set sail when he left his native 
 land for Italy. 
 
 "Justinian speaking in Paradise to Dante, who still belongs 
 to the world, says "your west," meaning, west as thought of 
 on Earth. 
 
 u Caesar defeated the sons of Pompey in Spain.
 
 282 DANTE 
 
 accomplished under its next standard bearer 14 
 Brutus and Cassius still bear testimony in Hell. Be- 
 cause of it the ill-fated Cleopatra still suffers, she, 
 who fleeing it, sought for herself terrible and sud- 
 den death from the asp. With him 15 it flew far even 
 as the Red Sea ; with him 15 it set the world in such 
 perfect peace that the temple of Janus was closed. 
 . "But what the ensign, of which I speak, had al- 
 ready done, and later was to do, throughout the 
 world, will dwindle in appearance and seem insig- 
 nificant if one contemplates it with single eye and 
 pure heart, as it was in the hand of the third 
 Caesar; 16 for the Justice of God which inspires me, 
 granted to it, in the hand of him of whom I speak, 
 the glory of doing vengeance for Its own wrath. 
 Mark now the marvel of what I shall unfold. With 
 Titus it made haste to do vengeance for the ven- 
 geance of original sin. 17 
 
 "And when the Lombards attacked the Holy 
 Church, under the Eagle, Charlemagne victoriously 
 came to her aid." 
 
 14 Augustus. 
 
 15 Augustus. 
 
 "Tiberius, during whose reign Christ was crucified. Pre- 
 vious to this time the Roman Eagle had exercised its influence 
 for worldly supremacy only. After this time it was destined 
 to exert itself in behalf of Heaven, i. e., destroy Jerusalem 
 and avenge the Crucifixion, as it did under Titus. 
 
 " First Rome, under its ensign, the Eagle, avenged the wrath 
 of God against Adam, by putting Christ to death, and sec- 
 ondly, it avenged the Jews, who crucified Him, by destroying 
 Jerusalem.
 
 DANTE 283 
 
 Justinian now speaks of the despicable way in 
 which political factions, and even individuals this, 
 in times subsequent to Charlemagne (800 A. D.), 
 and down to Dante's own day oppose, or appro- 
 priate, the eagle for personal or party ends. But, 
 says Justinian, in solemn warning: 
 
 "Let such an one fear the talons which have torn 
 the hide from a mightier lion. Many a time ere 
 now have the sons wept for the sins of the father; 
 let him not imagine that God will change this en- 
 sign for his lilies." 18 
 
 CANTO VII 
 
 From this point in their heavenly pilgrimage 
 Dante and Beatrice, be it remembered, are still in 
 the second sphere, that of Mercury, the second low- 
 est of the Heavens from this point, upward, the 
 shades or spirits appear as lights, which blaze forth 
 their own glory, each according to his own de- 
 gree of virtue, and, moving more or less rapidly, 
 
 "Dante refers to Charles II, King of Naples. He declares 
 that God will not change the emblem of the Roman Empire 
 which He has chosen to be his instrument for governing the 
 world, for the lilies, which form the emblem of the French 
 house of Anjou, of which house Charles was a son. 
 
 The many historical references made in the above selection 
 from Canto VI can be easily understood by referring to any 
 text-book on Roman History.
 
 284 DANTE 
 
 alone or in groups, form patterns. These move- 
 ments are made to diverse music. Beauty of light, 
 loveliness of sound, movement, all so characteristic 
 of life, constitute what might be termed the physical, 
 though impalpable, realities of the heavenly spheres, 
 and their blessed inhabitants. For analogy among 
 fhings of human origin I know of nothing closer 
 than fine fireworks, individual balls and stars of 
 flame, and what are known as "set-pieces," accom- 
 panied by music. But let him who finds any help 
 in such a faulty analogy remember that what Dante 
 saw with his mind's eye, nay, with his very soul's 
 eye, is as far removed from this mundane analogy 
 as Heaven is high above Earth but, so remember- 
 ing, the definite picture of the human thing may 
 be made the path of imaginative understanding to 
 the divine, for, whether talking or thinking of an- 
 other world, man has nought but the tangible pres- 
 ent, and its vocabulary of ideas and words, with 
 which to speak, or in which to conceive of the sur- 
 passing glories of what is beyond this mortal Earth. 
 Even "John to the seven churches which are in 
 Asia," could do no more. The essence of mystery 
 consists in what is not demonstrable, and mystery 
 is a prime quality of all great art, most of all the 
 art of poetry, which poetry is only great when it 
 has the power to "spring imagination." Mystery, 
 and the Paradise of Dante, are synonymous. Nei-
 
 DANTE 285 
 
 ther one nor the other can ever be acceptable either 
 to a grossly, or a finely materialistic reader. Love 
 of beauty, whether of divine or human making, and 
 love of art, of which poetry is the most precious 
 witness, love of the sort which begets appreciation, 
 always implies a veritable "act of faith." But, as 
 faith without works does not seem to be sufficient 
 in our daily course through life, so in poetry, imag- 
 ination can not have provable existence without a 
 material body of words and demonstrable ideas. 
 
 All of which, before now, more than once em- 
 phasized in these pages, is said again to impress upon 
 the reader of Dante, preeminently the reader of his 
 Paradise, this fact that the sole way of entering 
 into a spiritual understanding of his peculiar great- 
 ness is to bear constantly in mind, as he did, the ac- 
 tual conditions of human life in the daily round of 
 ordinary existence upon Earth. Finally, remember 
 that the lovely lights, the lovely sounds, and the 
 rapid movements in the higher spheres mean some- 
 thing more than the mere terms imply, which some- 
 thing more is no less than the state of the just after 
 death. "The holy Jerusalem descending out of 
 Heaven from God like a jasper stone, clear as 
 crystal," through the definite material meaning of 
 the words conveys something beyond material mean- 
 ing; mystery, what we will, provided only that we 
 recognize in this something more, the sole and only
 
 286 DANTE 
 
 real value which pertains to these and all other in- 
 spired words. 
 
 "Hosanna! Holy Lord God of Sabaoth, illuming 
 the blessed fires of these realms with Thy brightness 
 from on high," were the words, tuned to an accom- 
 paniment that came from the double light 1 which 
 was Justinian ; and it, and the other lights, moved in 
 their dance, and, like swiftest sparks, hid themselves 
 from me in sudden distance. 2 
 
 The canto closes with an argument for the Res- 
 urrection. Beatrice says to Dante : 
 
 "You say : 'I see the water, I see the air, the fire, 
 and the Earth, them, and all combinations of them, 
 that they are corruptible and endure little while. 
 Yet are they created things/ Consequently if what 
 I have said before is true, they ought to be incor- 
 ruptible. My brother, of the angels, and this pure 
 Heaven in which you are, it may alone be said that 
 they were brought into being, created, in their en- 
 tirety, and as they now stand. But the elements 
 which you name, and those things which are made 
 of them, were brought into being by a secondary 
 
 1 Justinian is spoken of as a double light because of his 
 twofold function of Emperor and Legislator. 
 
 2 They have returned to the Empyrean, their real dwelling 
 place, having come to the sphere of Mercury in order to show 
 themselves to Dante, and discourse with him. Justinian, in 
 the moment of his departure from Dante, bursts forth with 
 a hymn to God. The saints that are with him take up the 
 refrain.
 
 DANTE 287 
 
 power. 8 Supreme Goodness inspires your existence,* 
 and so completely endows it with love for Itself 
 that from thenceforth its heart is set on It. And 
 from this you may likewise draw an argument for 
 your resurrection, if you but recall how human 
 flesh was made, when both our first parents were 
 created." 5 
 
 CANTO VIII 
 
 We now come to the third Heaven, that of Venus, 
 and the spirits of lovers. Here are more lights, but 
 no faces revealed. The lights are all in motion. 
 Dante heard sung from within their depths : 
 
 "Hosanna," with such sweetness that I have never 
 since ceased wishing to hear it again. Then one of 
 them drew near and said : 
 
 "Every one of us is ready to do whatever pleases 
 you, in order to give you joy. In the same circular 
 course, with the same circling motion, and with the 
 
 "This means that the elements, and all that they imply, were 
 created by the power of the angelic Intelligences, which Intel- 
 ligences were in turn created direct by God; thus, the dis- 
 tinction, between created things, and all other things which, 
 though they seem to be created, are really not so, in the sense 
 of having been the immediate work of the Almighty. And, 
 of course, only created things can be exempt from corruption. 
 
 * Human life. 
 
 * God created the body, as well as the soul, no second power 
 intervening as in the case of the elements. What God created 
 can not die. Hence may be argued the resurrection of the 
 flesh, as well as the immortality of the soul.
 
 288 DANTE 
 
 same desire, do we revolve with those Princes 1 to 
 whom, on Earth, you once addressed the verse : 'Ye 
 whose intelligence moves the third Heaven.' 2 Good 
 will so fills us that, in order to please you, rest will 
 be no less sweet to us than motion." 
 
 When I had reverently lifted my eyes in question 
 to my lady, and she had satisfied me, and given 
 her assent, I turned them again to that light which 
 had just promised so much ; and, 
 
 "Tell us who you are," I cried with accents of 
 intense affection. 3 Ah! how much larger and 
 brighter I saw it grow because of the joy which my 
 words added to its already great gladness! Thus 
 magnified, it said to me :* 
 
 "Brief was the span of my days on Earth ; had it 
 been longer, much evil that is to be, had never been. 
 My bliss, shining around me, hides me from you as 
 the cocoon hides the silk worm. Great was the love 
 you bore for me, and much reason had you, and, had 
 I but remained among the living, I would have 
 shown you not only leaves 5 but fruits of friendship." 
 
 *The third rank of the nine celestial Intelligences which 
 compose the hierarchy of Heaven. 
 
 8 The first line of the first song in Dante's Convivio or 
 Banquet, as this earlier work is called. 
 
 * Because of the great compliment implied by the quotation 
 from Dante's own writing, which the light had paid him. 
 
 * Charles Martel, oldest son of Charles II of Anjou, king 
 of Naples. It is commonly believed that he and Dante were 
 friends. 
 
 e Leaves promise that fulfilment which is fruit.
 
 DANTE 289 
 
 After giving Dante a long and difficult discourse 
 on order and variety in, and among, things mortal, 
 Charles Martel concludes with some advice, as wise 
 now as then, about education to the effect that 
 those in positions of authority, ought first of all 
 to endeavor to find out what a youth is, by nature, 
 fitted for; then give him instruction calculated to 
 strengthen his natural aptitude. 
 
 CHARLES MARTEL 
 
 "And if, down yonder, your world would but give 
 heed to the natural dispositions of men, it would 
 produce a better race. But instead, you force upon 
 the Church one whq, was born to wield a sword, and 
 you make a king of one who was born to preach; 
 in so doing you do not move your feet along the 
 true way, which is the way of nature." 
 
 CANTO IX 
 
 After your Charles, O lovely Clemence, 1 had made 
 plain to me much that I desired to know, he went 
 on to tell me of the intrigues by which his descend- 
 ants would be defrauded of their just rights; but, 
 said he : 
 
 "Keep silence, and let the years roll on;" this 
 
 1 Whether this Clemence was Charles Martel's wife, or 
 sister, is uncertain.
 
 290 DANTE 
 
 much only can I tell you, that those who have 
 wronged you shall lament as is their due. 
 
 And now the spirit, within that holy flame, re- 
 turned to the Sun from which the fullness of its 
 light is derived, for He is that Good which is for 
 all things their source of light. O souls misguided, 
 and creatures without reverence, who harden your 
 hearts against such a Good, lifting up your heads 
 unto vanity ! 
 
 The ninth canto opens with the departure of the 
 light of Charles, and this brief apostrophe to the 
 heedless impiety, and vanity of human beings. It 
 closes with a strangely, almost weirdly, sweet pas- 
 sage in which the troubadour poet, Folco of Mar- 
 seilles, tells Dante about the light which is Rahab 
 "the harlot" who, "by faith perished not with them 
 that believed not." Hebrews xi: 31. Few passages 
 in The Comedy argue more completely Dante's abid- 
 ing faith in faith, and how it, alone, may be suffi- 
 cient for salvation. This incident related, Folco 
 speaks a few fierce lines concerning the manner in 
 which the high priests of the Church are neglecting 
 their duties and defiling their sacred offices; a 
 passage of what Carlyle calls that "natural conden- 
 sation spontaneous to the man. One smiting word; 
 and then there is silence, nothing more said." 
 
 "But in order that you may go away satisfied as
 
 DANTE 291 
 
 to every question to which this sphere has given rise, 
 I must needs tell you more yet. You have a wish 
 to know who is in this light which sparkles so bril- 
 liantly, here at my side, like a sunbeam flashing on 
 clear water. Learn then that within it, Rahab is at 
 peace, and that her being in our ranks 2 brightens 
 them more than any other presence. She was taken 
 up and received into this Heaven before any other, 
 of all the souls of the triumph of Christ. 8 Truly 
 was it meet to set her in one of the heavenly spheres 
 as a trophy of the magnificent victory won by the 
 Crucifixion, because she gave aid to the first glorious 
 exploit of Joshua 4 in the Holy Land, a thing which 
 scarcely stirs the memory of the Pope. 8 
 
 Your city 6 which was founded by him who first 
 rebelled against his Maker, and whose envy 7 has 
 caused so many tears, mints and circulates the ac- 
 cursed florin, which has led astray both sheep and 
 lambs, because it has turned their shepherd into a 
 wolf. 8 For its sake the great Doctors of the Church 
 are neglected, and heed is given only to the De- 
 
 * Lovers in the sphere of Venus. 
 
 * Those souls taken by Christ when He made His descent 
 into Hell. 
 
 4 Joshua ii :6. 
 
 "Boniface VIII made no effort to recover the Holy Land, 
 and did nothing even to start a Crusade. 
 
 * Florence. 
 
 "Through envy of the devil came death into the world." 
 Wisdom of Solomon ii :24. 
 
 1 The clergy, gone mad in their pursuit of gold, are become 
 wolves.
 
 292 DANTE 
 
 cretals, 9 as is proved by the notes on their margins. 
 It is these to which both Pope and Cardinals apply 
 themselves. Their thoughts go not to Nazareth 
 whither, in his descent, Gabriel winged his way. 
 But the Vatican, and the other sacred places of 
 Rome, wherein the soldiers of Peter lie buried, shall 
 soon be delivered from this adultery." 10 
 
 CANTO x 
 
 I was no more conscious of my ascent than is a 
 man of his thoughts, before they come. It was 
 Beatrice who guided me from good to better so in- 
 stantaneously that the act required no time. 
 
 As regards what was in the sphere of the Sun 
 which I had entered, distinguishable, not by color, 
 but by increased brilliancy, I could not report so as 
 to make any one believe me, even though I were 
 assisted by genius, art and experience. None the 
 less one may believe it, and, doing so, let him long 
 to behold it. If our faculties are too frail for com- 
 prehending such sublimities, it is no wonder ; for be- 
 yond the sun there was never eye could reach. 
 
 I beheld many living and surpassing lights, 1 which, 
 taking us as a center, formed themselves into a 
 wreath. They were even sweeter of voice, than re- 
 
 9 Laws. 
 
 10 This may refer to the removal, in 1305, of the Papal Court 
 to Avignon. 
 
 1 Brighter than the Sun in which they are.
 
 DANTE 293 
 
 splendent in aspect. In the heavenly court, whence 
 I have returned to Earth, many precious and lovely 
 things exist which can not be transported from the 
 kingdom, and of such was the song of those lights. 
 Let him who does not fly thither in imagination, ex- 
 pect tidings of that place from the dumb. 
 
 The wreath of blazing lights now circles around 
 Beatrice and Dante; then, ceasing its dance, one of 
 the great lights speaks to Dante ; it says : 
 
 "You desire to know of what flowers this wreath 
 is woven, which, around her, beams with delight 
 on the beautiful lady who gives you power for the 
 ascent of Heaven. For myself, I was a lamb of the 
 holy flock 2 which Dominic guides along that path 
 where all goes well with him who does not stray. 
 This one who is nearest to me, on my right, was 
 my brother and master. He was Albert of Cologne, 8 
 and I, Thomas of Aquino. 4 
 
 Others are named, and then : 
 
 "The fifth light, which is the most beautiful 
 among us, breathes forth so much love that all the 
 
 * The religious order of Dominicans. 
 
 ' So learned that he came to be known as Albert the Great, 
 Doctor Universalis. 
 
 4 St. Thomas Aquinas, the author of a famous work on the- 
 ology which is still an acknowledged authority on points of 
 doctrine by the Roman Catholic church.
 
 294 DANTE 
 
 world down yonder longs to know about him. 5 
 Within that light is the exalted intellect of him who 
 had such profound wisdom, that, if truth be truth, 
 none other ever knew so much." 
 
 Then Boethius, minister and philosopher at the 
 court of Theodoric, and author of the beautiful 
 book, "golden book" Gibbon calls it, The Consola- 
 tion of Philosophy, is pointed out, or rather the 
 light which contains his spirit, which St. Thomas 
 tells Dante: 
 
 "came from martyrdom and from exile to this 
 place." 
 
 When the enumeration of lights is complete, and 
 each has been named, Dante brings the canto to a 
 close with : 
 
 I beheld that wheel of glorious lights, moving, 
 and within it, voice answering unto voice, in such 
 unison, and with such sweetness, as can not be 
 known save there where joy is everlasting. 
 
 CANTO XI 
 
 In this canto, the Dominican, Thomas Aquinas, 
 praises a Franciscan, St. Francis of Assisi; in 
 the next, a Franciscan, Bonaventura, returns the 
 
 6 Solomon, whose place among the damned or blessed was 
 a matter of dispute. "None like thee before thee, neither 
 after thee shall any rise like unto thee." 1 Kings iii :12.
 
 DANTE 295 
 
 compliment by lauding St. Dominic. The two or- 
 ders, Franciscan and Dominican, stand, one for 
 gentle means of conversion, love; the other, for in- 
 tellectual argument, dialectic, even force, as means 
 of conversion. Both, great men, because influencers 
 of many men, in their own time, and since; one, 
 verily on fire with charity, founded a religious or- 
 der, a vast society whose likeness to the Salvation 
 Army is in many respects striking; the other, on 
 fire with logic, founded a religious society of men, 
 many of them powerful thinkers and highly cul- 
 tivated, who sought to rid the world of heresy by 
 arguments, theological and philosophical, and, when 
 these failed, by sword, to sweep the Earth clean 
 of heretics. These cantos contain what is the 
 essence of true biography, a picture of the spir- 
 itual part of a man drawn in such words as all men, 
 in every time, understand and respect. And, of all 
 forms of writing, as none is nobler, so none is rarer. 
 The canto opens with twelve remarkable lines in 
 which Dante exclaims upon the pettiness of human 
 pursuits, compared with the glories of Paradise 
 which those very pursuits so often keep mortals 
 from tasting. 
 
 How senseless, O man, your choice of things on 
 which to set heart! How weak the reasons which 
 lead you to pursue low aims! One was following 
 the law, and one medicine, and one the Church, and
 
 296 DANTE 
 
 one was seeking to rule by might or by sophism, and 
 one to rob, and one to have a hand in public affairs ; 
 one was immersed in the pleasures of the flesh, and 
 one was devoting himself to idleness, when I, quit 
 of all these things, was being received so gloriously 
 with Beatrice in Heaven. 
 
 The lights which have been circling about 
 Beatrice and Dante now pause, and, from the heart 
 of the flame which contains the spirit of St. Thomas, 
 they hear that Providence ordained two princes as 
 guides for the Church. 
 
 "One 1 was endowed with seraphic love, the other, 2 
 because of his learning, was on Earth a cherub 
 for wisdom. I will speak of the former, since in 
 praising one, both are praised, because every deed 
 of theirs looked to the same end. He was still very 
 young when he began to comfort the Earth with his 
 great goodness; for, while yet a youth, he brought 
 down his father's anger on him for falling in love 
 with a lady 3 whom, like death, no man woos vol- 
 untarily. In the spiritual court, 4 and in his father's 
 presence, he vowed himself to Poverty, and, from 
 that instant, day by day, his love for her grew 
 
 1 St. Francis. 
 8 St. Dominic. 
 
 * Poverty. 
 
 * Before the Bishop of Assisi, i. e., in the spiritual court of 
 his native town.
 
 DANTE 297 
 
 stronger. She, widowed of her first spouse 5 for 
 more than eleven hundred years, despised and un- 
 known, had gone uncourted till his coming. 
 
 "But in order not to speak in terms too obscure, 
 from now on take Francis and Poverty to be these 
 lovers. 
 
 "Their harmony and cheerfulness excited such 
 affection, and admiration, and sympathy, in men, 
 that the result was many conversions. The ven- 
 erable Bernard was the first to go barefooted in 
 pursuit of such profound peace, and, running, it 
 seemed to him that he was slow. O undreamed of 
 riches ! O thrice prolific good ! Egidius next bares 
 his feet, and Sylvester his, following the bride- 
 groom, so o'erwhelming is the loveliness of the bride. 
 Thenceforth that father, and that master, pursued 
 his own course, with his bride, and with the com- 
 pany of his followers who already had put on the 
 humble cord ; 6 nor did any misgivings of heart cause 
 him to hang his head, because he was the son of 
 Pietro Bernardone ; 7 or because he had become an ob- 
 ject of intense scorn. With dignity befitting a king, 
 he explained to Innocent 8 his stern vow to be poor, 
 and from him received the first official recognition 
 for his Order. When the devotees of poverty had 
 
 'Christ, who lived a life of poverty. 
 'The Franciscans wore a cord instead of a girdle. 
 1 The rich father of Francis. 
 
 * Pope Innocent III, about 1210, approved the monastic rul 
 of St Francis.
 
 298 DANTE 
 
 greatly increased, following the example of him 
 whose wonderful life would be more adequately re- 
 hearsed in the glory of high Heaven, this blessed 
 shepherd of many folds was crowned a second time 
 by the Eternal Spirit, speaking through Honorius. 9 
 And, after this, thirsting for martyrdom, in the 
 presence of the Sultan he preached Christ and the 
 others who followed Him ; and because he found the 
 Saracens unripe for conversion, and in order not to 
 remain where he could accomplish nothing, he re- 
 turned to care for the harvest of the Italian faithful. 
 On the rocky ridge between Tiber and Arno he re- 
 ceived, direct from Christ, the last seal of approval, 10 
 which for two years his limbs bore. When it pleased 
 Him who had chosen this one for such great good, to 
 lift him up to the reward which his self-abasement 
 merited, to his brethren, as to lawful heirs, he com- 
 mended his most dear lady, 11 commanding them to 
 love her faithfully; and, from her bosom, his il- 
 
 9 Pope Honorius III confirmed the approval of the Order of 
 St. Francis earlier given by Innocent. See 8, page 297. 
 
 M The Stigmata. The story is that SL Francis prayed to 
 have the suffering of being crucified, in order that his out- 
 ward life might be a complete copy of Christ's, and that 
 Christ appeared to him, and that, from the moment of His 
 appearance to the end, two years, St. Francis bore the nail 
 marks, and lance scar, and suffered excruciatingly thereby, 
 and always praised the Lord therefor. The Stigmata was 
 the final seal of Heaven's approbation (the two earlier having 
 come from Popes), the third seal, set on the Franciscan 
 Order ; the seal of a miracle. 
 
 11 Poverty.
 
 DANTE 299 
 
 lustrious soul chose to depart, returning home, and 
 for his dust he desired no other bier." 12 
 
 CANTO XII 
 
 More spirits appear, each hidden in his own light, 
 and form an outer, or second circle, about that inner 
 circle of which St. Thomas, who has been speaking, 
 is. In the outer circle St. Bonaventura, a Francis- 
 can, begins to sing the praise of St. Dominic. 
 
 "The Love which makes me beautiful prompts me 
 to discourse of that other leader 1 whose follower 
 has spoken so highly of mine. 2 It is but right that 
 when one is mentioned the other should be intro- 
 duced, so that as, united, they carried on the strug- 
 gle, so together may their glory shine. The army 
 of Christ, which costs so much to re-equip, was fol- 
 lowing its standard 3 slowly, full of doubt and weak 
 in numbers, when that Emperor who reigns forever* 
 because of His Grace, and not on account of their 
 desert, made provision for His soldiers that were in 
 peril; and, as has been told, sent two champions to 
 succor His Bride. 8 It was the words and deeds of 
 
 13 Than the bosom of Poverty, the bare earth on which he 
 chose to die. 
 1 St. Dominic. 
 1 St. Francis. 
 The Cross. 
 God. 
 The Church.
 
 300 DANTE 
 
 these which reclaimed the people who had gone 
 astray. 
 
 "In happy Callaroga 6 was born the passionate lover 
 of the Christian faith, the holy champion, gentle to 
 his own, and without mercy to his enemies. As 
 soon as his soul had been created it was so replete 
 with energy that, within his mother's womb, it made 
 her a prophetess. 7 When the pledges for his bap- 
 tism had been given at the sacred font, and he and 
 Faith 8 had become one, dowering each other with 
 salvation, the lady 9 who had given assent for him, 
 beheld in her sleep the wonderful fruit which would 
 one day come of him, and of his heirs. 10 He was 
 named Dominic. 11 I speak of him as the husband- 
 man whom Christ chose to assist Him with His gar- 
 den. Of a truth did he seem Christ's messenger and 
 friend, for the very first inclination which he mani- 
 fested, was to follow the first precept which Christ 
 gave. 12 Not for the world, love of which at pres- 
 ent makes men toil, but for love of the true manna, 13 
 did he, in short while, become a mighty teacher, 
 such that he set about pruning the vineyard of the 
 
 "The present-day Calahorra in Old Castile. St. Dominic 
 was born in 1170. 
 
 T She had prophetic dreams about her son's future before he 
 was born. 
 
 8 Faith was St Dominic's bride, as Poverty was the bride of 
 St. Francis. 
 
 ' His godmother, who had answered for him at baptism. 
 
 "The Dominicans. 
 
 11 Named after the Lord, Dominus. 
 
 3 "Sell that thou hast and give to the poor." 
 
 13 Theology.
 
 DANTE 301 
 
 church which soon runs wild if the vinedresser be 
 negligent. From the papal chair which, in former 
 days, was more generous to the righteous poor, 
 not because it has grown degenerate in itself, but 
 because of the degeneracy of him who sits upon it, 
 Dominic begged not 1 * to be allowed to dispense 
 to the poor only two or three where six was due, 
 nor sought the first vacant benefice, the tithes of 
 which belong to God's poor. He begged rather for 
 leave to fight against the erring world in behalf of 
 the seed of true faith, four and twenty plants of 
 which encircle you. 15 Then, armed with doctrine 
 and firm determination, together with the sanction 
 of the Papacy, he issued forth like a torrent from 
 on high, and on heretics his onslaught smote with 
 greatest force where was most resistance. After- 
 ward, from him there burst forth various streams 
 by which the Catholic garden is watered so that the 
 plants in it are becoming vigorous." 
 
 CANTO XIII * 
 
 In this canto St. Thomas Aquinas again speaks, 
 explaining the relation of Solomon's wisdom to 
 that of Adam and Christ. The latter part of the 
 canto is given over to warning mankind against 
 
 "He did not beg to be let off from giving the poor their 
 dues. 
 
 u The twenty- four spirits in the double circle of lights where 
 Dante now is, the sphere of the Sun.
 
 302 DANTE 
 
 coming to hasty conclusions on matters of theology 
 and philosophy. The canto is omitted entirely, not 
 because it lacks either interest or beauty, but simply 
 because it does not contain matter of such striking 
 interest, or passages of such unusual beauty as to 
 make it essential, in any of its parts, to the idea of 
 the present book, which is a volume of extracts only, 
 though extracts which contain the thread of Dante's 
 narrative, and not a little of his philosophy and rea- 
 soning about matters physical and matters spiritual ; 
 in a word, an introduction. 
 
 CANTO XIV 
 
 Solomon tells Dante about the bodies of the blest 
 when they shall be given their flesh at the Last Judg- 
 ment. Then comes the ascent to the Sphere of Mars, 
 and sight of the Soldiers of Christ in what might 
 be called a review, gigantic in scale, and complex 
 in its movements, beyond power to conceive, save 
 on the part of an extraordinary imagination, such 
 as Dante had. 
 
 When, as Dante says, "the glorious life of 
 Thomas became silent" (St. Thomas has been dis- 
 coursing upon the vanity of human judgment), 
 Beatrice begins : 
 
 "This man, 1 though he expresses it neither in 
 his words nor in his thoughts, wishes to know 
 
 1 Dante.
 
 DANTE 303 
 
 concerning yet another truth. Tell him if the light 
 which now rays forth about your spirit will remain 
 with you to all eternity, as it now is; and if it is to 
 remain so, explain how, when you are again made 
 visible in your flesh, 2 it can be possible for your eyes 
 to endure such brightness." 
 
 As when, in a circle, dancers, urged on by in- 
 crease of joy, all at once begin to sing, adding gaiety 
 to motion, so upon the eager and devout request of 
 Beatrice, the heavenly circles expressed their in- 
 crease of joy by dancing and uttering wondrous 
 melody. Whoever laments the exchange which im- 
 plies death on Earth and life in Heaven, has never 
 had the least conception of the happiness which Di- 
 vine Love there dispenses. 
 
 That One and Two and Three, which lives for- 
 ever, and forever reigns in Three, and Two and 
 One, itself uncircumscribed, yet all things circum- 
 scribing, was three times praised in hymn so glo- 
 rious that to hear it would be reward enough for 
 every virtue. And in the divinest light of the 
 smaller circle 3 I heard a low; voice, such perhaps as 
 that with which the angel spoke to Mary ; it said :* 
 
 "As long as the joy of Paradise lasts, so long 
 
 "After the Resurrection. 
 
 * Dante and Beatrice, be it remembered, are still at the 
 center of the two concentric circles of lights and spirits. 
 
 4 After the saints have sung praises to the Trinity, Solomon, 
 already described as "the light which is most beautiful among 
 us," begins to answer the question which Beatrice has just 
 asked.
 
 304 DANTE 
 
 shall our love clothe us in vesture of light. The 
 brightness of it will be proportioned to the ardor of 
 our love, the ardor of our love to the degree in 
 which our vision of God is undimmed, and that is 
 in accord as it receives grace beyond its own merit. 
 When we shall again be clothed on with flesh, glori- 
 fied and made holy, we shall become more acceptable 
 to God because complete. Wherefore whatever 
 light the Supreme God freely vouchsafes to us will 
 be increased, light which enables us to see Him. 
 Hence will our power of vision increase, and there- 
 with the ardor which such vision kindles, and also 
 the brightness which comes from such ardor. But 
 even as a flaming coal may itself be brighter than 
 the flame, and within the flame remain visible, so, in 
 like manner, will the radiance which now enfolds us 
 be outshone by the flesh which, all this while has 
 lain in the Earth. Nor will so intense a light be able 
 to fatigue us, because the organs of the body will be 
 endowed with strength for everything that can 
 bring us pleasure." 
 
 So prompt and so eager to say "Amen," did both 
 circles of saints appear, that it was evident indeed 
 how much they longed for their dead bodies; not, 
 it may have been, for their own sakes only, but for 
 their mothers', and their fathers', and for the others 
 whom they had loved, while yet they dwelt among 
 the living. 
 
 And suddenly, on every side, and of the sama
 
 DANTE 305 
 
 brightness, a glow burst forth like that which rises 
 from the horizon at approach of day. And as 
 with the approach of evening new objects begin to 
 show themselves in the sky, so that our vision seems 
 both true and false, in like manner I there began to 
 see new spirits, and a circle forming outside the 
 other two. O very radiance of the Holy Spirit! 
 how instantaneous and incandescent it burst upon 
 my eyes which, o'erwhelmed, endured it not ! Bea- 
 trice showed herself to me so lovely, and so smiling, 
 that I must leave undescribed her appearance as be- 
 ing among those sights which memory can not 
 retain. 
 
 But from the sight of her my eyes got back the 
 power to look up again, and I discovered that I was 
 alone with my lady, and taken up into a loftier 
 sphere of bliss. 6 That I had risen higher was evi- 
 dent by the fiery light of that star which was redder 
 than it ordinarily looks. 6 With my whole heart, and 
 with that speech which is one in all men, 7 I offered 
 thanks to God, as was befitting this new grace. And 
 the ardor of my offering had not died in my breast 
 before I knew that my sacrifice had been received 
 with favor, for such was the effulgence, and such 
 the ruby splendor which, in the shape of a cross, ap- 
 peared to me, that I cried out: "O God, who can 
 bestow such beauty !" 
 
 "The Fifth Heaven, that of Mars. 
 
 " From the Earth. 
 
 * A grateful mind, i. e., thoughts of gratitude.
 
 306 DANTE 
 
 At this point memory outstrips my genius, for 
 that Cross 8 was flashing forth Christ in a manner 
 that makes every comparison futile. But he who 
 takes up his own cross and follows Christ will here- 
 after excuse me for that which I leave undescribed, 
 when in the radiance of that place he himself shall 
 behold Christ, as shining as the lightning. 
 
 From arm to arm, 9 and between the head and the 
 foot, lights moved, and sparkled brightly as they 
 passed. Thus here on Earth, particles of every size 
 are seen to move, level and sloping, swift and slow, 
 always changing, within a sunbeam which now and 
 then falls aslant through the darkness which men 
 make by closing shutters. And as a viol or a harp 
 produces harmony from many concordant strings, 
 creating a sweet sound even when the tune can not 
 be caught, so, by the lights which I there saw, a 
 melody which ravished me was formed throughout 
 the Cross, although I did not understand the hymn. 
 But well did I know that it was of exalted praise, 
 because I caught the words, "Arise and conquer," 
 like one who, in spite of hearing, does not under- 
 stand. So enthralled was I by it that until then 
 nothing had bound me with such delightful fetters. 
 
 * The Cross of lights, or constellation of the spirits in Mars. 
 
 * The Cross. See Note 8.
 
 DANTE 307 
 
 CANTO XV 
 
 This canto is a monument among the works of 
 men, for the substance, and the manner, of the 
 picture which it draws of the possibilities of re- 
 spect and affection between men of the same blood, 
 though different generations, and of the possibilities 
 for dignity and beauty in simple living. The latter, 
 dealt with in a passage describing the simple life in 
 the old days of Florence those in which Dante's 
 ancestor lived, is given on page eight. 
 
 One of the lights which has its place in the Cross 
 of Mars now moves along the arm of the Cross to- 
 ward Dante. It is his great-great-grandfather, Cac- 
 ciaguida. 
 
 With equal tenderness the shade of Anchises 
 opened his arms, if the word of our greatest Muse 
 is to be believed, when, in the Elysian Fields, he 
 descried his son. 1 
 
 "O my own blood, O superabundant grace of 
 God! To whom, as to you, was ever the gate of 
 Heaven twice opened?" 2 
 
 Thus said the light, and to its words I gave heed. 
 Then I turned to look again upon my lady. I was 
 awestruck by what I saw on either side, for deep 
 in her eyes shone such a smile that, with mine, I 
 
 1 Anchises when he saw ^Eneas, "stretched forth both hands 
 eagerly." Xneid, vi. 685. 
 'Before death, and again, after.
 
 308 DANTE 
 
 thought to reach the depth of my allotted grace and 
 of my bliss in Heaven. 
 
 When Dante has gained permission from Bea- 
 trice, he addresses the light. 
 
 "Earnestly do I beseech you, Living Topaz, gem 
 of this precious Cross, that you tell me your name." 
 
 "O branch of my tree, 8 in whom, even while I 
 waited I took pleasure, I was your ancestral root." 
 
 So saying he began his reply, then continued : 
 
 "He from whom your family gets its name, and 
 who, for a hundred years and more, has been cir- 
 cling the lowest ledge of Purgatory, was my son 
 and your great-grandfather; truly fitting would it be 
 for you, by prayers, to shorten his long and weari- 
 some stay down there." 
 
 CANTO XVI 
 
 This canto opens with an exclamation, nine lines 
 long, charged with quaint figurativeness, and sur- 
 charged with sound understanding, against the emp- 
 tiness of family pride, unless the dignity and im- 
 portance of the family is maintained by ability and 
 nobility on the part of the descendants who bear 
 the name. 
 * Family.
 
 DANTE 309 
 
 Ah me! how poor a nobility is that which man 
 bases upon blood ! If here on Earth, where the zeal 
 for good is feeble, it causes humankind to boast, I 
 shall never again be astonished at the fact; because 
 there, where no zeal for anything evil can exist, I 
 mean in Heaven, I was myself proud of my own 
 blood. But verily, pride of descent is a mantle which 
 soon grows short, so that if material be not added 
 to it now and then, Time continually shortens it with 
 his shears. 1 
 
 "Tell me, beloved forefather, who were your an- 
 cestors, and w r hat were the years of your boyhood. 
 Tell me about the sheep fold of St. John, my Flor- 
 ence ; how large was it at that time, and which fami- 
 lies in it were most worthy to be honored." 
 
 As an ember is quickened into flame by a gust of 
 wind, so I beheld that light 2 grow brighter yet in 
 answer to my eager words. And as it grew fairer 
 to look upon, so with voice more soft and gentle, but 
 not in the language of the present time, it said to me : 
 
 "From the day on which the angel said 'Hail/ to 
 that on which my mother, now a saint, was in child- 
 birth lightened of me with whom she had been 
 laden, this fiery Mars had returned to the sign of 
 
 1 Dante could have argued with a truth, which succeeding 
 generations have attested, that if his ancestor, Cacciaguida, 
 had founded a line to be proud of, and himself bestowed much 
 honor on its origins, he, Dante, had added more; in a word 
 that much material, and good, had been added to their family 
 mantle even to the third and fourth generation. 
 
 1 Cacciaguida.
 
 310 DANTE 
 
 Leo 8 five hundred and eighty times.* My fathers 
 and I were born near the boundary of the last ward 
 reached by those who take part in the annual races 
 on St. John's day. 6 Of my ancestors this is enough 
 for you to know ; as to who they were, and whence 
 they came, it is more modest to keep silent than to 
 speak. 
 
 "The total number of those able to bear arms, who 
 then dwelt between Mars and the Baptist, 6 was equal 
 to one-fifth of the present population. But the blood 
 of the citizens, which now is mixed with Campi, 
 Certaldo, and Fighine, 7 at that time ran pure in the 
 humblest artisan." 
 
 Cacciaguida then gives a long list of the famous 
 families and great deeds of old, and closes the canto 
 as follows: 
 
 "With these families, and others, I saw Florence 
 in such tranquillity that she was utterly without oc- 
 
 8 Its place in the zodiac. 
 
 4 About one thousand and ninety years. In other words 
 Cacciaguida was born about .1090 A. D. 
 
 "This race was run from west to e.ast through the city of 
 Florence. Cacciaguida means to say that their family was 
 born on the east side, near the boundary of the last ward 
 reached by the runners, i. e., the easternmost. This was the 
 old quarter of the city. Having had their houses in it, 
 proves how ancient a line the family came from. 
 
 "The church of St. John Baptist and the statue of Mars, 
 which stood at the head of the old bridge across the Arno, 
 were points in the circuit of the ancient walls of Florence, on 
 the northern and southern sides. 
 
 * Small places in the neighborhood, from which country 
 people moved into Florence.
 
 DANTE 311 
 
 casion for tears. With these families I saw her citi- 
 zens so glorious, and so just, that the lily was never 
 reversed upon the spear, nor made vermillion by 
 party feuds." 8 
 
 CANTO XVII 
 
 Dante asks his ancestor to tell him of his own fu- 
 ture, and to make clear what the dark things vaguely 
 foretold in Hell and Purgatory meant. 
 
 "O beloved source from which I sprang, exalted 
 now so high that even, as human intellects see, a 
 triangle can not contain two obtuse angles, so you, 
 gazing upon God, to Whom all times are present, 
 do see the possible events of life before they take 
 place ; while, with Virgil, I was climbing the moun- 
 tain which purges souls of sin, and again, while I 
 was descending through Hell, words of gloomy 
 foreboding were said to me respecting my future, 
 in spite of which I truly feel myself able to stand 
 four-square against the strokes of fate. My long- 
 ing to know would be soothed by hearing what for- 
 tune holds in store for me, because a dart foreseen 
 does less hurt." 
 
 Not with ambiguous words, such as were used to 
 fool the ancients, 1 before the Lamb of God, that 
 
 *He saw no victorious enemy drag the lily, emblem on the 
 banner of Florence, in the dust, and he never saw it reddened 
 by blood spilt as a result of political quarrels. 
 
 *The oracles of pagan times, such, for instance, as Delphi 
 was in the habit of giving forth.
 
 312 DANTE 
 
 taketh away sins, had been slain; but with clear 
 meaning and plain language did my dear forebear, 
 swathed in, and made manifest by his own bright- 
 ness, answer me. 
 
 "As Hippolytus was exiled from Athens because 
 of his cruel and treacherous stepmother, so shall you 
 be driven out of Florence. This is resolved upon, 
 and will soon be accomplished, by him 2 who is giv- 
 ing his mind to it there where Christ is every day 
 bought and sold. The blame, as usual, will be laid 
 on the injured party, but vengeance shall bear wit- 
 ness to the God of truth Who repays. You will have 
 to leave behind all that you hold most dear. This 
 is the first grief of exile. You will have to learn 
 how bitter is the bread of charity and how hard a 
 thing it is to go up and down another's stairs. 3 But 
 the most grievous burden laid upon you will be the 
 evil and the foolish companions whom you will find 
 in the valley of exile, every one of whom, ingrate, 
 mad and malevolent, will turn against you. But 
 soon, thereafter, they, not you, shall burn crimson 
 with shame. Of their likeness to brutes their own 
 conduct will give proof, so that it will be wise for 
 you to have formed a party by yourself. 4 
 
 "Your first refuge and abiding place will be the 
 
 * Boniface VIII, who at this time was constantly trading in 
 Church offices. 
 
 8 To be obliged to eat other men's bread, and find shelter 
 under other men's roofs. 
 
 *To have stood apart, and joined in none of their quarrels.
 
 DANTE 313 
 
 courtesy of the great Lombard, who will develop 
 such deep affection for you that when, between you 
 two, it comes to asking, and doing good, that will 
 be first which between other men is last." 5 
 
 CANTO XVIII 
 
 The opening scene of this canto is still in the 
 sphere of Mars. In it some of the other lights of 
 the Cross are made known to Dante; soldiers and 
 defenders of the true faith. Later on, comes the 
 ascent to Jupiter, where the souls of the just are 
 made apparent by arranging themselves so as to 
 shape out letters, and spell words. It is extraordi- 
 nary that the complexity of the stage machinery 
 and the elaborate stage "business" in nowise hin- 
 ders the development, clear and convincing, of the 
 loveliness and grandeur of the ideas of this canto 
 in what might, with entire truth, be called their 
 naked splendor. The whole canto, not more per- 
 haps than many others, but as much surely, offers 
 remarkable proof of Coleridge's declaration that, 
 "the two sole component parts, even of genius, are 
 
 "This means that in his exile Dante's first host, Bartolom- 
 meo della Scala, lord of Verona, will love him so truly that 
 he will grant favors to Dante before Dante can so much as 
 ask for them, a reversal of the usual custom of life, which is 
 first to ask favors and then, to have them granted, if granted 
 at all. The gall of exile without cause, and the sweetness of 
 much-needed hut gratuitous hospitality in an alien land, have 
 never been more beautifully recorded.
 
 314 DANTE 
 
 good sense and method." If genius requires more 
 than these, Dante had that more, whatever it is; 
 if not, his method, meaning technique, and his good 
 sense, were enough, and must, as they exhibit them- 
 selves in this canto alone, establish the validity of 
 Coleridge's view. The passage dealing with the na- 
 ture of imagination and its place in art, which oc- 
 curs in this canto, has been equaled but few times 
 in the whole range of letters once unquestionably 
 by Shakespeare in the lines beginning: "Imagina- 
 tion bodies forth the forms of things unseen." The 
 closing apostrophe to papal avarice is one of the 
 most touching, and at the same time scathing, re- 
 bukes in The Comedy. 
 
 Looking at Beatrice, in whose eyes Dante sees 
 the light of divine Grace reflected, he forgets the 
 forebodings of exile, and all else, and, as he says, 
 is completely overcome by the radiance. Beatrice 
 says: 
 
 "Turn and listen, for not only in my eyes is Para- 
 dise." 
 
 The light which swathes Cacciaguida once more 
 begins to glow, and its spirit speaks : 
 
 "In this fifth grade of Heaven, which draws its 
 life from God on high, and to which new souls are 
 ever coming, and from which none depart, are
 
 DANTE 315 
 
 blessed spirits who, before they came to Heaven, 
 had on Earth attained such great renown as would 
 give the loftiest poets worthy theme. Therefore 
 look with all your might upon the arms of the Cross ; 
 he whom I shall name will swiftly flash, as lightning 
 among the clouds." 
 
 At the mention of Joshua, even during the act, 
 I saw a light dart along the Cross. Word and flash 
 were simultaneous. And at the name of the great 
 Maccabeus, I saw another light flashing, and whirl- 
 ing as it flashed. Ecstasy of joy made it spin as the 
 whip a top. Likewise, when Charlemagne and Roland 
 were named, my sharp gaze followed two more 
 lights. Then leaving me to take its position among 
 other lights of the Cross, the spirit that had been 
 speaking showed me how noble a place was his in 
 the choir of Heaven. 
 
 I turned to my right hand and sought, by look or 
 gesture, to learn from Beatrice what next to do, and 
 I beheld her eyes so sparkling and so rapturous, that 
 her beauty outdazzled its usual and its utmost 
 brightness. As a man, whose joy increases in 
 well-doing, knows that his virtue is advancing, so 
 I, seeing the wondrous Beatrice grown more glori- 
 ous, perceived that the circle of the sphere in which 
 I moved had increased its arc. 1 And as, in brief 
 
 1 The higher the sphere, the greater and the nearer to God, 
 and therefore the more glorious in itself, and the more glori- 
 ous in appearance must they, who are in it, be.
 
 316 DANTE 
 
 space of time, the blush on a lady's cheek leaves 
 her and she regains her natural color, such was the 
 change there, because of the whiteness of the tem- 
 perate sixth sphere 2 of Jupiter, which had received 
 me within itself. 3 There, within Jove's planet, I be- 
 held its spirits sparkling with love and, before my 
 very eyes, spelling words in light. And, as birds, 
 risen from a river's bank, seeming to exalt over their 
 pasturage, form a flock, now round, now of other 
 shape, so, enveloped in their flames, these blessed 
 creatures sang as they flew, and flying, made them- 
 selves now D, now I, now L. 4 At first, as they 
 sang, they swayed to their own music, but when 
 they had formed into one of these letters, they 
 paused a while and kept silence. 
 
 O divine Pegasea, who makest the wits of men 
 glorious, and renderest them long-lived, as they, 
 through thee, the cities and the kingdoms, illumine 
 me with thyself that I may set forth their shapes, 
 as I have conceived them; let thy power appear in 
 these brief verses! 5 
 
 The spirits of light now spell out the entire sen- 
 tence, "Diligite justitiam, qui judicatis terram,"* 
 
 "Jupiter was called temperate because it was between the 
 fiery Mars and the cold Saturn. 
 
 3 They have passed up into the next sphere, that of Jupiter. 
 
 * The first letters of Diligite, "Love ye," from the Wisdom 
 of Solomon i:l. "Love righteousness ye that be judges of 
 the earth." 
 
 *This passage is given in the words of Professor Norton's 
 translation, revised edition.
 
 DANTE 317 
 
 and then rise and disperse like sparks when a burn- 
 ing log is struck. Finally, each having taken its 
 own place, and become quiet, Dante says : 
 
 I saw the head and neck of an Eagle 8 depicted by 
 that patterned fire. 
 
 O soldiery of Heaven on whom I gaze, pray for 
 those who down in the world have all gone astray, 
 following an evil example! 7 Formerly it was the 
 custom to wage war with swords, but now it is 
 waged by withholding, sometimes here, sometimes 
 there, that bread 8 which the pitying Father denies 
 to none. 
 
 But you, who write only to cancel, 9 should bear in 
 mind that Peter and Paul, who died for the sake of 
 the vineyard that you are laying waste, do still live. 
 In truth, can you say: "So fixedly have I set my 
 heart on him 10 who willed to live solitary, and who 
 for a dance was dragged to martyrdom, that I know 
 neither the Fisherman nor Paul." 
 
 'The emblem of justice, the Eagle, was, of course, the 
 symbol of the Empire. Dante makes this the excuse for in- 
 veighing against the corruptions of the Papacy which ^were 
 at that time the main stumbling block in the way of justice. 
 
 T The example of a wicked Pope, Boniface VIII. 
 
 "The sacraments of the Church. 
 
 'The Pope who writes excommunications for the sake of 
 being paid to erase, and so withdraw them. 
 
 10 The image of St. John Baptist was on the golden florin, 
 and it was florins, or money, on which the Pope set his heart
 
 318 DANTE 
 
 1 
 
 CANTO XIX 
 
 In front of me, with wings outspread, loomed 
 the Eagle's splendid image, 1 outlined in flaming 
 souls joyful in their glad fruition. Each was like 
 a little ruby struck by a ray of intense sunlight, 
 the light reflected back to my eyes. And that which 
 I must needs now relate, was never told by voice 
 before, nor written, nor by imagination compre- 
 hended, for I saw, and likewise heard, the beak speak 
 words, and utter both "I," and "My," when in real- 
 ity it was "We," and "Our." 2 
 
 And it began : 
 
 "Because of justice and goodness I am exalted to 
 the glory of Paradise. On Earth I left a memory, 
 such that even the evil-minded commend it, though 
 they do not follow the example which its tradition 
 inculcates." 
 
 Dante now inquires concerning the eternal justice 
 of God, and how it can damn the virtuous heathen. 
 The Eagle answers : 
 
 1 The Eagle, symbol of Justice under the Empire. 
 
 "The Eagle speaks in the singular number, whereas the 
 thoughts which he expresses are plural, coming from the 
 minds of the many souls by which he is shaped. The whole 
 symbolizes the harmonious will of the Just, and the unity of 
 Justice under the Empire. The whole theory of this canto is 
 contained in Shirley's lines : 
 
 "Only the actions of the just 
 
 Smell sweet and blossom in the dust."
 
 DANTE 319 
 
 "He whose compasses fixed the circumference of 
 the world, and who set within it so much that is 
 hidden and so much that is manifest, could not 
 stamp His personality on the whole Universe in 
 such a way that his Word 3 should not immeasurably 
 exceed all human powers of understanding. There- 
 fore the vision which the world down yonder re- 
 ceives of Eternal Justice, penetrates it, much as your 
 eye does the ocean. Though near the shore you look 
 to the bottom, on the open sea you do not, yet none 
 the less is the bottom there, though the depth con- 
 
 1 Wisdom. 
 
 "He took the golden compasses, prepared 
 
 In God's eternal store, to circumscribe 
 
 This universe . . . 
 
 And said, . . . 
 
 This be thy just circumference, O world 1" 
 
 Paradise Lost, VII. 225. 
 
 Along with Dante's and Milton's treatment of this subject 
 (it may be called the definite aspect of creation), a superb 
 illustration, of that sort of art wherein reasoned imagina- 
 tion far outdistances knowledge, another and equally re- 
 markable treatment of the same subject should be remem- 
 bered, the drawing of God setting compasses to the world, by 
 William Blake. Like the Italian and the English verses 
 under consideration, this drawing also has that epic grandeur 
 which is never attained by art save as the artist ruth- 
 lessly turns his back on every adventitious detail, and 
 sets his heart on the essential part of his subject, and his 
 subject Is sublime. In the poets' and the painters' accounts of 
 the "laying off" of this world's measurements we have perfect 
 illustration of how art attains to majesty; to sublimity. All 
 such things give increase of meaning to Swedenborg's "There 
 is nothing existing in human thought, even though relating to 
 the most mysterious tenet of faith, but has combined with it 
 a natural and sensuous image." This same sentence helps 
 to clear our understanding and appreciation of Blake's draw- 
 ing, and the lines of Dante and Milton, all three being essen- 
 tially one and the same.
 
 320 DANTE 
 
 ceals it. There is no light save that which comes 
 from God's Serene Heaven, which light is never 
 darkened. All other light is darkness, either shadow 
 of flesh, or its poison, sin. 
 
 "You say : 'Suppose a man is born on the banks 
 of the Indus, 4 where there is none to tell him of 
 Christ, and nought that he may read of Him, and 
 none to write; yet every act of this man, and all 
 of his desires are righteous, and, so far as human 
 reason can see, his life is sinless in deed and word. 
 He dies unbaptized, and without faith; what sort of 
 Justice is that which sends him down to Hell? 
 Wherein is he at fault for not believing?' 
 
 "Now who are you that, having extremely short 
 sight, would sit in judgment on that which is a 
 thousand miles away? Verily, for him who would 
 ask subtle questions of me, were not the matter set- 
 tled by authority of Scripture, there would be ample 
 reason for doubting." 5 
 
 Later on in the canto comes a wonderful passage 
 in which Eagle declares that : 
 
 "To this Kingdom no one ever ascended who had 
 not believed in Christ either before or after He was 
 
 4 A heathen. 
 
 "The Eagle, in effect, says that divine Justice is utterly be- 
 yond the furthest reach of human understanding, but declares, 
 with Scripture, that works without faith are not enough for 
 salvation.
 
 DANTE 321 
 
 crucified. But behold how many now cry, 'Christ, 
 Christ,' who at the Last Judgment shall be far less 
 near to Him than some who knew Him not, and 
 the Ethiop 8 shall make such Christians appear worth- 
 less indeed when the saved and the damned shall 
 be separated, the one to all eternity rich, the other 
 poor." 
 
 CANTO xx 
 
 The scene of this canto continues in the sphere of 
 Jupiter, and the starry Eagle continues to speak. 
 
 As sound takes the form of music at the neck of 
 a guitar, and as at the mouth-hole of a bagpipe the 
 blowing makes notes, so, without more delay, a mur- 
 mur rose through the Eagle's throat to its beak, as 
 if it were hollow. And there it became a voice, 
 and thence it burst forth in the shape of words, 
 such as my heart, 1 whereon I wrote them, was 
 awaiting. 
 
 "That organ in me which in earthly eagles has 
 strength enough to look at the sun," began the heav- 
 enly Eagle, "you must now watch with care, because 
 of all the starry lights that are united to delineate 
 my shape, those that sparkle about my eye are chief. 
 He who shines in the center, as pupil of my eye, 
 was the singer of the Holy Spirit who bore the Ark 
 
 ' Heathen. 
 1 Memory.
 
 322 DANTE 
 
 from city to city. Now he knows the merit of his 
 song because his reward is proportioned to it. Of 
 the five who form the curve of my eyebrow, the 
 one nearest my beak was he who consoled the poor 
 widow for her son; 2 now he knows, through expe- 
 rience of this blessed state, and of its opposite, how 
 dear a price is paid for not following Christ. And 
 he who comes next upon the rise of the curve, of 
 which I am speaking, through sincere repentance 
 put off death ; 3 now he understands that the eternal 
 judgment is not altered when a worthy prayer 
 causes what was ordained for to-day to be put off 
 until to-morrow. The next, with good intention 
 that bore evil fruit, in order to make place for the 
 Pope, made the laws, and me, as well as himself, 
 Greek;* now he knows how the evil which has re- 
 sulted from his good deed has not diminished his 
 own glory, although that deed should destroy the 
 world. And he on the sinking curve was William, 
 whom that realm mourns which now suffers because 
 Charles and Frederick are alive; 5 now he knows 
 how Heaven loves a just king, and in the brightness 
 
 "Trajan, who from Hell was taken to Paradise. 
 
 "Hezekiah by repentance was given fifteen years of addi- 
 tional life. 
 
 *Constantine by leaving Rome to the Papacy helped to 
 found its temporal power, which later made trouble. By 
 taking the government and the Eagle, i. e., the Empire, to 
 Byzantium, afterward Constantinople, they and the laws be- 
 came Greek, Byzantium being a Greek city. 
 < "William II, called the Good, king of Sicily, who was suc- 
 ceeded by Charles and Frederick, evil rulers.
 
 DANTE 323 
 
 of his light he declares it. Who, down in the wicked 
 world, would believe that Rhipeus, 6 the Trojan, was 
 fifth among the saintly fires in the curve of my eye- 
 brow? He now knows much about divine grace 
 that the world can not know, although even his 
 vision pierces not to the utmost depths." 
 
 The Eagle goes on to explain how it is that Tra- 
 jan and Rhipeus, both pagans, have been received 
 into Heaven. Trajan, because of the prayers of St. 
 Gregory the Great, was brought back from Hell 
 after four hundred years, refreshed and given time 
 to repent, which he did and so secured salvation. 
 Because of his justice he was given such high sta- 
 tion in the sphere of the just, and sits among the 
 lights in the brow of the Eagle; Rhipeus, because 
 he set his heart on virtue and goodness, was, by 
 God's grace, saved. The Eagle explains that a thou- 
 sand years before baptism was heard of, the faith, 
 hope and charity which were his, served for his bap- 
 tism. Then : 
 
 "O predestination, how hidden are thy workings 
 from the understanding of those who are not able 
 to fathom the mind of God. And you, mortals, be 
 you careful in judging, for even we, who here see 
 God, know not all the elect. But to us this lack of 
 
 * Rhipeus is mentioned by Virgil as the most just man of all 
 the Trojans.
 
 324 DANTE 
 
 i 
 
 perfect knowledge is sweet, for our happiness is con- 
 summated in this, that what God wills we also will." 
 
 The story about Rhipeus is of Dante's own cre- 
 ating; that about Trajan, an ancient tradition. As 
 the entire canto is a most noble hymn in praise 
 of justice, these two stories bespeak a marvelous 
 strength of inherent justice in Dante, the individual, 
 and a not less wonderful faith in the doctrine that, 
 "with God, all things are possible." It is just this 
 that Ruskin means, where in The Bible of Amiens 
 he says: "Quite the most beautiful sign of the 
 power of true Christian-Catholic faith is this con- 
 tinual acknowledgment by it of the brotherhood 
 nay, more, the fatherhood, of the elder nations who 
 had not seen Christ; but had been filled with the 
 Spirit of God ; and obeyed, according to their knowl- 
 edge, His unwritten law. The pure charity and hu- 
 mility of this temper are seen in all Christian art, 
 according to its strength and purity of race; but 
 best, to the full, seen and interpreted by the three 
 great Christian-Heathen poets, Dante, Douglas of 
 Dunkeld, and George Chapman." 
 
 CANTO XXI 
 
 The ascent to the seventh sphere, that of Saturn, 
 is made at the opening of this canto. 
 
 Within the crystal sphere which, revolving round 
 the world, is named after its illustrious ruler,
 
 DANTE 325 
 
 Saturn, whose reign was the world's golden age of 
 sinlessness, I beheld a glittering ladder that rose be- 
 yond my sight. And I saw coming down it such a 
 vast number of resplendent creatures that I thought 
 all the stars in Heaven had been shed upon it. 1 
 
 St. Peter Damian, a famous doctor of the Church 
 in the eleventh century speaks with Dante, first, tell- 
 ing how he came to such an exalted place, and later, 
 hurling bitter invective against the present luxury 
 of the priesthood. Of what is happening at the 
 monastery of Fonte Avellana, 2 he says : 
 
 "I became so devoted to the service of God that, 
 with no other food than olive juice, satisfied with 
 the contemplative life alone, I easily endured both 
 summer's heat, and winter's cold. In former days, 
 that cloister yielded an abundant harvest to these 
 Heavens, but now it has become barren as must, of 
 necessity, soon appear. In that place I was Peter 
 Damian, and Peter the sinner I had been. Few 
 were the years left to me when I was sought out 
 and dragged to that hat 8 which is now regularly 
 
 *This is Jacob's Ladder, Gen. xxviii, 12, "upon which," 
 says St. Bernard, "is whosoever aspires to Heaven. It is the 
 Church Universal." 
 
 It signifies the contemplative life, because of which the 
 soul, meditating upon God, ascends to Him. 
 
 1 Not far from Urbino. 
 
 * St. Peter Damian, against his will, was made Cardinal 
 Bishop of Ostia. The increasing corruption of the College 
 of Cardinals is referred to by the "bad to worse."
 
 326 DANTE 
 
 passed down from bad to worse. Cephas 4 came, 
 and the great vessel of the Holy Spirit 5 came, lean 
 and barefoot, and got their food at any house that 
 chanced. But nowadays the modern prelates require 
 attendants for support upon either hand, and an- 
 other to go before, so fat are they grown, and yet 
 others behind, to carry their trains. Their mantles 
 cover their palfreys, so that two beasts go under one 
 hide. O Patience of God that can endure so much !" 
 
 CANTO XXII 
 
 St. Benedict appears and tells of the founding 
 and decline of the Benedictine Order. 
 
 "The top of that mountain on the side of which 
 Cassino 1 lies, was of old inhabited by a pagan race. 
 I am he who first carried to its summit, the name of 
 Him who brought to Earth the truth, because of 
 which we here are so high exalted. Such grace was 
 showered on me that I induced the surrounding vil- 
 lages to give up the impious worship which was mis- 
 leading the world. With me here, are my brothers ; 
 they who fixed their feet within the cloisters, and 
 kept steadfast hearts." 
 
 *St Peter, the rock on which the Church was founded. 
 John i:42. 
 
 * St. Paul. Acts ix :15. 
 
 1 Monte Cassino, in the Kingdom of Naples, crowned with 
 a temple to Apollo, was chosen by St. Benedict as the spot on 
 which to found, in 529, the first monastery of his Order.
 
 DANTE; 327. 
 
 I answered : 
 
 "The affection that you show in speaking with 
 me, and the propitious aspect which I see and mark 
 throughout the surrounding company of lights, have 
 expanded my trust, as the sun a rose. Therefore, I 
 pray you, Father, tell me whether I am fit to receive 
 such great grace as that of seeing your countenance, 
 without the veil of its concealing light." 
 
 ST. BENEDICT 
 
 "Brother, your noble wish shall be granted up in 
 the last sphere, there where all others are to be 
 granted, and mine, too. There, every desire be- 
 comes righteous, perfect, complete. There are nei- 
 ther space nor poles, 2 and thereto our ladder reaches 
 up, and hence the top of it is beyond your sight. 
 Up to that point the patriarch Jacob saw it stretch, 
 when it was revealed to him, laden with so many 
 angels. But nowadays no human being attempts 
 to climb it, and my Rule 8 counts for no more than 
 waste paper. Those walls that once were the house 
 of prayer, have become dens, and the cowls are sacks 
 full of bad meal. But heavy usury is not exacted 
 so absolutely contrary to God's pleasure, as that 
 fruit which makes the heart of the monks so mad ; 
 for everything which the Church holds in keeping, 
 
 "The Empyrean, immovable, without axis or poles. 
 * The law of the Benedictine Order.
 
 328 DANTE 
 
 is all for them who ask it in the name of God, and 
 not for kindred, or others more vile. Mortal flesh 
 is so weak that a good earthly beginning does not 
 give assurance from the springing of the oak to the 
 ripening of the acorn. Peter began without gold 
 or silver, and I with prayer and fasting, and Francis 
 founded his convent on humility. And if you re- 
 gard the beginning of each, and then realize how 
 far it has gone astray, you will see that what was 
 white is now soiled. Truly it would be more mar- 
 velous to witness succor in this case, than it was to 
 see Jordan rolled back, and the sea fleeing when God 
 willed it." 
 
 Dante now prays for greater light, and power of 
 heavenly knowledge, to complete his work, and 
 Beatrice says : 
 
 "So close on ultimate salvation are you now that, 
 in truth, your eyes need be clear and keen. There- 
 fore, before you go deeper into it, again look down 
 and see how vast a universe I have already set be- 
 neath your feet, in order that your heart, rejoicing 
 to its utmost, may be presented joyous unto the tri- 
 umphant throng which, all gladness, moves through 
 the spheral ether." 
 
 My gaze traveled back across all the seven 
 spheres, and lighted on this globe of ours, so small 
 that I smiled at its paltry aspect ; and that counsel I
 
 DANTE 329 
 
 approve as best, which holds it to be of the least 
 account. Truly he may be numbered among the 
 righteous who sets his thoughts elsewhere. I saw 
 the daughter of Latona* shining without her spots. 
 The dazzling brightness of the sun I could there en- 
 dure, and I marked how, round about it, and near to 
 it, moved Mercury and Venus. Then to my sight 
 appeared the temperate Jove, between his father, 
 Saturn, and Mars, his son; and then I understood 
 the reason for the variation in their movements. 
 There I saw all seven of them, 5 how vast they are, 
 and how swift-moving they are, and how far from 
 one another they are placed. The little threshing- 
 floor of Earth, about which we are so arrogant, lay 
 spread out beneath my eyes, from hill-top to river 
 mouth, as I revolved with the eternal Twins. 8 
 
 Then I turned my eyes back to the beautiful eyes 
 of Beatrice. 
 
 CANTO XXIII 
 
 The spirits that have part in the triumph of 
 Christ appear, and then a vision of Christ Him- 
 self is granted. Overcome by the surpassing bright- 
 ness, the Vision withdraws on high, and the light 
 pours down over the garden of Christ, wherein 
 
 4 The Moon. 
 
 "The planets. 
 
 'Dante is standing in the sign of Gemini, when he takes 
 this general view of the universe, and more particular look at 
 the world.
 
 330 DANTE 
 
 > 
 
 Dante sees the Virgin rose, and the Apostolic lilies. 
 At last, the Angel Gabriel descends, and crowns the 
 Virgin, upon which she rises into the Empyrean, 
 and all the saints flame upward as if to follow her. 
 Full of mysticism and beauty, a thing to be under- 
 stood as far as possible, and, beyond that, felt, this 
 canto is of amazing loveliness. It is easy to realize 
 why it has often been maintained to be the most 
 exalted poetry in The Comedy. 
 
 Beatrice, rapt in expectation, is gazing fixedly on 
 high when, suddenly, her countenance becomes far 
 more resplendent than Dante has yet seen it, and she 
 exclaims : 
 
 "Behold the hosts of the Triumph of Christ, and 
 all the fruits harvested by the influence of Heaven." 
 
 Her face fairly blazed it seemed to me, and her 
 eyes were so full of joy that, without even attempt- 
 ing a description, I am obliged to pass on. 
 
 As in the clear Heavens, at her full, the moon 
 smiles among the eternal stars which enrich the 
 firmament, throughout its immeasurable depths, so 
 I saw, brighter than numberless lamps, a Sun from 
 which they all received their light, as the stars, 
 theirs, from our sun. 1 And, through that living 
 fire, the glory of Christ smote so bright upon my 
 face, that I could not endure it. 
 
 O Beatrice, my guide, gentle and adored ! 
 
 1 The stars were supposed to get their light from the sun.
 
 DANTE 331 
 
 She replied : 
 
 "That which overwhelms you is a power from 
 which nothing can shield itself. Here are the Wis- 
 dom and the Virtue that opened the way between 
 Heaven and Earth, for which there had been so long 
 a period of yearning." 
 
 Dante, utterly overcome, is brought back to him- 
 self by Beatrice, who says : 
 
 "Open your eyes, and behold me, as I am, for you 
 have seen such things that, from now on, you will 
 be able to sustain my smile." 
 
 I was like one who is still subject to the effect of 
 a forgotten vision, as he strives vainly to recall it to 
 his thought, when I heard this invitation, which be- 
 got such gratitude that it can never be erased from 
 those leaves of my memory, whereon are written the 
 records of the past. If all the tongues were now to 
 sound for my assistance which Polyhymnia and her 
 sisters have endowed with their sweetest gifts, the 
 thousandth part of the truth could not be compassed 
 in singing of her blessed smile, and how it sanctified 
 her holy countenance. And so, in picturing Para- 
 dise, the consecrated poem must needs make a leap, 
 like a man who finds his way cut off. But whoever 
 considers the weighty theme, and the mortal shoul- 
 der that must carry it, will not blame me if I stagger. 
 It is no voyage for a little bark, this which my dar-
 
 332 DANTE 
 
 ing prow goes cleaving, nor for a pilot who would 
 spare himself. 
 
 BEATRICE 
 
 "Why does my face so absorb your love that you 
 heed not the fair garden 2 which blooms beneath 
 Christ's radiant light ? Here is the Rose 3 in which 
 the Divine Word was made flesh ; here are the lilies 4 
 whose fragrance made it possible to follow the true 
 way." 
 
 The name of that beautiful flower, on which I 
 call both morning and night, chained all my thoughts 
 to itself, as the brightest of all the lights. And 
 when my vision had been stamped with the bril- 
 liance and vastness of that living star, which excels 
 on high, as she excelled down here, there descended, 
 from out the heart of Heaven, a ring of fire, shaped 
 like a crown, which circled her, 5 and wheeled around 
 her. Whatever melody sounds sweetest upon Earth, 
 and most enthralls our souls, would resemble a thun- 
 derclap, compared with the tones of that lyre, 6 which 
 crowned the heavenly Sapphire whose azure gives 
 the color to the Empyrean sky. 
 
 'The saints. 
 8 The Virgin. 
 
 * Apostles and Saints. The image is taken from St. Paul, 
 2 Corinthians ii :14. 
 
 * The Virgin, or the star that was the Virgin, chief glory of 
 the garden of the Blest. 
 
 ' Gabriel.
 
 DANTE 333 
 
 This music-scattering lyre, circle of sweet-sound- 
 ing light, Angel of the Virgin's Coronation, now 
 chants : 
 
 "I am Love Angelic, circling that Supreme joy 
 which breathes from out the womb which was 
 Christ's pre-natal dwelling; and I shall go on cir- 
 cling, Queen of Heaven, until, following your Son, 
 you shall confer more divinity upon the Empyrean, 
 by entering it." 
 
 Into such words did the circling melody shape 
 itself, and the name of Mary, by all the other stars, 
 was sung. 
 
 This chant of Gabriel's ended, the Virgin rises to 
 Christ in the Empyrean, and is lost to sight. The 
 saints remain below with Dante. 
 
 He next describes the Primum Mobile calling it a 
 
 royal mantle for all the revolving spheres of the 
 universe, 
 
 and tells us that its inner side was so far distant 
 that his eyes could not follow 
 
 the crowned flame 7 when she mounted thither to her 
 offspring. 8 
 
 f The Virgin. 
 ' Christ
 
 334 DANTE 
 
 Before my eyes the saints began to sing ''Reg'ina 
 coeli' 9 so sweetly, that the pleasure given, never 
 leaves me. Oh, how great is the abundance stored 
 up in those thrice blessed souls who on Earth were 
 such good ground for the seed of righteousness. 
 Here they dwell, and here enjoy the treasure laid 
 up while they wept in that exile of Babylon, where 
 they paid no heed to gold. Here beneath the exalted 
 Son of God and Mary, together with saints, both of 
 the Old and the New Testament, triumphing in his 
 victory is he 10 throned who holds the keys to all this 
 glory. 
 
 It is such "unfathomable song" as this canto that 
 can alone make one realize what Shelley means 
 when he says: "Poetry exalts the beauty of that 
 which is most beautiful; it marries exaltation and 
 horror, grief and pleasure, eternity and change; 
 every form moving within the radiance of its pres- 
 ence is changed by wondrous sympathy to an in- 
 carnation of the spirit which it breathes." 
 
 CANTOS XXIV, XXV, XXVI 
 
 These three cantos form a group apart, but, 
 taken together, they are an important link in the 
 
 "A hymn appointed by the Church to be sung on certain 
 days following Easter. It is one of the noblest of all hymns. 
 
 "Rejoice, O Queen of Heaven, for He whom thou wert 
 worthy to bear, has risen as He promised; to God, pray for 
 us. Hallelujah." 
 
 19 ^t- Peter.
 
 DANTE 335 
 
 chain of consequences which lead to the natural 
 culmination of the Paradise. In them is given an 
 account of the examination which Dante, like every 
 human being, must pass upon the three subjects, 
 Faith, Hope and Charity, before he is ready to par- 
 take of that glory to which we are told, at the close 
 of Canto XXIV, St. Peter holds the keys. Beatrice 
 presents Dante for his examination in each of the 
 three subjects. 
 
 CANTO xxiv ' 
 
 | 
 
 It opens with a passage in which Beatrice appeals 
 to the Apostles and the Saints to bestow some of 
 their knowledge upon her companion and friend. 
 
 "O Fellowship elect to the great supper of 
 the blessed Lamb, Who so feeds you that your 
 desire is always satisfied, inasmuch as this man, by 
 God's grace, is having some foretaste of that which 
 drops from your table, 1 before death has fixed the 
 number of his days, give heed to his intense longing, 
 and somewhat refresh him, since you are always 
 drinking at the fountain whence flows the knowledge 
 for which he thirsts." 
 
 A light of greater brightness than the others 
 comes forth from the throng of celestial fires. It 
 is St. Peter. To him Beatrice says : 
 
 1 Knowledge of divine things.
 
 336 DANTE 
 
 "O light, everlasting, of the great man with 
 whom our Lord left the keys of this marvelous 
 joy; the keys, he carried to the world; examine this 
 man, as pleases you, on points easy and difficult, 
 concerning the Faith by means of which you walked 
 upon the sea." 
 
 - ST. TETER 
 
 "Speak, good Christian, make yourself clear. 
 What is Faith?" 
 
 DANTE 
 
 "May the grace which vouchsafes to me that I 
 confess to the chief centurian, cause my ideas to be 
 wisely worded ! 
 
 "As the truthful pen, Father, of your beloved 
 brother 3 (who, together with yourself, set Rome on 
 the right road), wrote, Faith is the substance of 
 things hoped for, and the evidence of things not 
 seen ; 8 and this appears to me to be the essence of it." 
 
 ST. PETER 
 
 "You apprehend rightly, if you discern correctly 
 why he ranked it first with the substances, and then 
 with the evidences." 
 
 * St. Paul. 
 "Hebrews xi :1.
 
 DANTE 337 
 
 DANTE 
 
 "The profound mysteries which are here under- 
 standable, on Earth are so hidden from human eyes 
 that their very existence is a matter of Faith, upon 
 which our high hopes are founded, and for this rea- 
 son it is known as substance. From this faith we 
 deduce our reasoning without more insight, and 
 hence it comes to be designated as evidence."* 
 
 ST. PETER 
 
 "If all that in the world passes for doctrine, were 
 understood after this manner, foolish argument 
 would there be done away with. Very well have 
 you explained the alloy and the weight of the coin; 6 
 but tell me, have you it in your own purse ?" 6 
 
 DANTE 
 
 "Yes, I have it so shining and so round that in its 
 stamp there is nothing doubtful to me." 
 
 *AU our ideas concerning another world are matters of 
 belief, the spiritual world having no visible or provable exist- 
 ence upon Earth. Hope of a future life, and another world, 
 rests on belief which implies Faith. It is properly called sub- 
 stance, being the foundation on which hope rests. Again, 
 since our belief, which is Faith, gives us our grounds for rea- 
 soning about the future, it is properly called evidence. 
 
 Faith. 
 
 " Your heart.
 
 338 DANTE 
 
 ST. PETER 
 
 "This precious gem upon which every virtue rests, 
 whence came it to you?" 
 
 DANTE 
 
 "The plenteous rain of the Holy Spirit, which is 
 poured forth upon the Old and the New parchments, 
 is an argument which proves it to me so conclu- 
 sively, that, by comparison, all other demonstrations 
 seem dull." 7 
 
 ST. PETER 
 
 "The Old and. the New which are so conclusive 
 to you why do you accept them as the word of 
 God?" 
 
 DANTE 
 
 "The proofs which disclose their authenticity to 
 me are the miracles that followed the Word, for 
 which nature neither heated iron, nor struck anvil." 
 
 ST. PETER 
 
 "Speak, what assurance have you that these mira- 
 cles really were performed? The very thing which 
 
 v 'The inspiration made manifest in the Old and New Testa- 
 ments. 
 
 i
 
 DANTE 339 
 
 requires to be proved, and none other, testifies to 
 you in its own behalf." 
 
 DANTE 
 
 "If the world were converted to Christianity 
 without miracles, this is itself so great a miracle, 
 that the others are not a hundredth part so strange ; 
 for, poor and hungry, you entered the field to sow 
 the good plant which, once was a vine, and is now 
 degenerated to a bramble." 
 
 This being ended, the high and holy court re- 
 sounded through the spheres a "We Praise Thee, O 
 God," in the melody such as is sung only up there. 
 
 CANTO xxv 
 
 These twelve opening "lines of infinite pathos 
 and beauty," as W. W. Vernon describes them, are 
 an utterance, almost a wail, on Dante's part, be- 
 fore his examination on Hope begins, his own su- 
 preme hope and wish in this world having been re- 
 call from banishment, and the recognition of his 
 poetic greatness by Florence. The translation i* 
 Longfellow's : 
 
 If e'er it happen that the Poem Sacred, 
 To which both heaven and earth have set their hand, 
 So that it many a year hath made me lean, 
 
 O'ercome the cruelty that bars me out 
 From the fair sheepfold, where a lamb I slumbered, 
 An enemy to the wolves that war upon it,
 
 340 DANTE 
 
 With other voice forthwith, with other fleece 
 Poet will I return, and at my font 
 Baptismal will I take the laurel crown; 
 
 Because into the Faith that maketh known 
 All souls to God there entered I, and then 
 Peter for her sake thus my brow encircled. 
 
 ^The light that is St. James, now disengages itself 
 from the others, and comes forward, and speaks. 
 
 ST. JAMES 
 
 "Since our Sovereign Emperor wills, with infinite 
 grace that, while yet in the flesh, you shall come 
 face to face with His saints, in His most secret coun- 
 cil-chamber, in order that, having once seen the 
 truth of this court, you may thereby confirm in 
 yourself and others that Hope which on Earth 
 rightly makes men fall in love with it, say, what 
 it is, and why it abounds in your mind, and also tell 
 me whence it came to you?" 
 
 Beatrice, fearful that the answer to the second 
 question may embarrass Dante, replies to it herself, 
 the answer involving self-praise. 
 
 BEATRICE 
 
 "The Church militant has no child more hopeful; 
 therefore was it granted unto him to come up to 
 Jerusalem out of Egypt, 1 and to see, before the days 
 of his mortal strife are ended." 
 
 1 From Earth to Heaven.
 
 DANTE 341 
 
 Beatrice now adds that Dante may answer the 
 other question for himself. 
 
 DANTE 
 
 "Hope is the sure expectation of glory to come, 
 the effect of divine grace, and preceding merit. 
 This light comes to me from many stars, 2 but he 
 first instilled it into me who was the supreme singer 
 of the Supreme Leader. 8 'Let them hope in Thee 
 who know Thy name/ he sings in his noble Psalms ; 
 and who does not know it, if he has my faith ? And 
 later, you, in your Epistle did imbue me with that 
 which he had instilled, so that I am running over 
 with it, and, upon others in turn I shower your 
 rain."* 
 
 ST. JAMES 
 
 "That love, with which I still yearn for the vir- 
 tue 5 which followed me even to martyrdom, and to 
 my issuance from mortal strife, wills that I speak 
 again to you, who take such delight in it. I would 
 have you tell me what it is that Hope promises you ?" 
 
 * "And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the 
 firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the 
 stars forever and ever." Dan. xii :3. 
 
 * David. 
 Hope. 
 Hope. 
 
 ' Death freed him from the battle of life.
 
 342 DANTE 
 
 DANTE 
 
 "The New and the Old Scriptures establish the 
 goal, 7 and that means Hope. Of the souls whom 
 God has made His friends, Isaiah says, that in his 
 true home 8 every one shall be robed in a double ves- 
 ture, and his true home is this blessed place. And 
 more explicitly yet, does your brother make mani- 
 fest to us this same revelation, in that passage where 
 he treats of the white robes." 
 
 Immediately, these words had been spoken, "Spe- 
 rent in te" w resounded overhead, to jvhich all the 
 choirs made answer. 
 
 [CANTO XXVI 
 
 St. John, whose radiance has dazzled Dante to 
 the point of blindness, now proceeds with his ex- 
 amination. He first asks Dante what led him to 
 desire Divine Love. Dante replies that God is the 
 beginning and end of all love, and that he knows 
 this by the aid of philosophy and divinely revealed 
 authority. Dante says : 
 
 "The voice of God makes it plain, Who, speaking 
 of Himself, said to Moses : 'I will make thee see all 
 
 Paradise, and the bliss thereof. 
 8 Paradise. Isaiah Ixi :7. 
 
 * St. John in the Apocalypse, Revelation vii :9-17. 
 [t "Et sperent in te, qui noverunt nomcn tuunt" "They that 
 know thy name will put their trust in thee."
 
 DANTE 343 
 
 goodness.' 1 You also make it plain, at the beginning 
 of that sublime announcement 2 which, in the world, 
 proclaims the mystery of Heaven louder and more 
 clearly than all other proclamations." 
 
 And I heard : 
 
 ".With the help of human intellect, and concord- 
 ant authority of Scripture, your sovereign love is 
 centered on God ; but say further, do you feel other 
 cords draw you to Him, so that you can tell by how 
 many reasons this love holds you." 
 
 DANTE 
 
 "All those incentives, which can draw the heart 
 to God, have had a part in my love; for the exist- 
 ence of the world, and my own being, the death 
 which He suffered that I may live, and that which 
 all the faithful hope, as I do, together with the al- 
 ready-mentioned vital consciousness, (that God is 
 the supreme good and hence the supreme object of 
 love),- all these incentives have drawn me forth 
 from the sea of perverted love, and set me on the 
 shore of the true. The leaves, wherewith the entire 
 garden 8 of the Eternal Gardener is made green, I 
 
 1 Exodus xxxiii :19. 
 
 "It is not clear precisely what line of Revelation is here 
 meant, but probably, "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning 
 and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and 
 which is to come, the Almighty." 
 ;> 'The world.
 
 344 DANTE 
 
 love in proportion to the perfection lie has bestowed 
 on each." 
 
 As soon as I \vas silent a chant of indescribable 
 sweetness reverberated through the Heavens, and 
 my lady, with the others sang: "Holy, Holy, 
 Holy." 
 
 Dante now asks Beatrice about a new light, and 
 she answers : 
 
 "Within those beams the first soul* which God 
 created is gazing with joy upon its Maker." 
 
 Dante, tremendously moved by the presence of 
 Adam, begs him to speak, and Adam says : 
 
 "You wish to hear how long it is since God placed 
 me in the lofty Eden garden, where this lady 5 pre- 
 pared you for the tremendous ascent, and for how 
 long a time I rejoiced in the garden, and the true 
 cause of the great wrath, and what language I used 
 and originated. My son, the tasting of the tree was 
 not in itself the reason of so great a banishment, but 
 only the disobedience. In that place, 8 which your 
 lady besought Virgil to leave, I longed for the con- 
 gregation of the Blest while the Sun completed four 
 thousand three hundred and two revolutions; 7 and 
 
 * Adam. 
 
 8 Beatrice. 
 8 Limbo. 
 
 * Years measured by the sun's revolution.
 
 DANTE 345 
 
 while I dwelt upon the Earth I saw him 8 return to the 
 lamps of his pathway, 9 nine hundred and thirty times. 
 The language which I spoke was wholly extinct long 
 before the race of Nimrod attempted the impossible 
 task, for -no product of human reason can last for- 
 ever because human likings vary under the influence 
 of the stars. 10 It is a natural thing for man to speak, 
 but the manner of his speech nature leaves wholly 
 to his own pleasure. Before I went down to the 
 misery of Hell, the Supreme God, from whom issues 
 the joyous light which clothes me, was on Earth 
 called I ; later He was called El ; and this is natural, 
 for the custom of mortals is like the leaf on a 
 branch which goes away and another comes. On 
 the mountain, 11 which rises highest from the waves, 
 I lived my life of innocence and guilt, from the first 
 hour to the sixth, when the sun changes quadrant." 
 
 CANTO XXVII 
 
 "To the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy 
 Ghost," all Paradise began to chant so sweetly that 
 
 The sun. 
 
 *The signs of the Zodiac. 
 
 "Human speech, the product of human reason, changes 
 with the alteration of human inclinations, which inclinations 
 were, according to thirteenth-century belief, influenced by the 
 stars. 
 
 " Adam dwelt in the Earthly Paradise, i. e., on the summit 
 of the mount of Purgatory, a little more than six hours. The 
 cim changing quadrant means completing a quarter of his 
 circle ; a quarter of the day, which is six hours.
 
 346 DANTE 
 
 I became infatuated. That which my eyes saw, 
 appeared to me to be a smile of the universe. My 
 infatuation poured in upon me through both eyes 
 and ears. O rapture ! O unutterable bliss ! O per- 
 fect life of love and peace! Riches secure, with 
 nothing left to long for ! 
 
 The four lights which are Peter, James, John and 
 Adam, Dante sees blaze on, and one of them, Peter, 
 increase his brightness and turn crimson. 
 
 When silence, by God's will, had fallen on the 
 blessed choir, I heard : 
 
 "If I change color, marvel not; for while I speak 1 
 you shall see all these likewise change color. He 
 who on Earth usurps my place, my place, my place, 
 which, in the eyes of the Son of God, is vacant, has 
 made my tomb a sewer of blood and filth, because 
 of which, down there, the Evil One, who fell from 
 here, is pleased." 
 
 Dante says that he then saw all Paradise grow 
 fiery red, and Beatrice blush with indignation. 
 
 Just such a change, I deem, took place in Heaven 
 when Almighty God was crucified. 
 
 1 St. Peter is speaking of the Papacy, and his own suc- 
 cessors.
 
 DANTE 347 
 
 St. Peter continues, in a voice as much unlike his 
 usual voice, as his countenance is changed from its 
 wonted appearance : 
 
 "The Bride of Christ 2 was not nourished with 
 my blood, and that of Linus, and of Cletus, to be 
 used for the sake of gaining gold; but to make sure 
 of this happy existence did Sixtus, and Pius, and 
 Calixtus, and Urban, shed their blood after much 
 weeping. 8 It was not our intention that a part of 
 the people should sit at the right hand, and another 
 part at the left, of our successors; nor that the keys, 
 which were entrusted to me, should become the em- 
 blem on a banner carried in war against Christians ;* 
 nor that I myself should be made the figure on a 
 seal to venal and false privileges, because of which 
 I often turn scarlet and flash with anger. From 
 here on high, ravenous wolves, clad as shepherds, 
 are to be seen in every pasture. O defense of God, 
 why do you still slumber ! To drink our blood the 
 Cahorsines and the Gascons 5 are making ready. O 
 good beginning, to what a vile end must you go 
 down! But I am sure that the high Providence 
 which at Rome, with Scipio, defended the glory of 
 
 'The Church. 
 
 'All Bishops of Rome who suffered martyrdom. 
 
 * Boniface VIII, fighting the Calona family, is here referred 
 to. See Inf. XXVII. 
 
 'St. Peter sees a native of Cahors (Pope John XXII) and 
 one of Gascony (Pope Clement V) preparing to enrich them- 
 selves at the cost of the Church.
 
 348 DANTE 
 
 the world, will soon bring succor. And you, my 
 son, who because of your mortality, will again re- 
 turn to Earth, speak out; hide nothing of that which 
 I have declared." 
 
 CANTO xxvm 
 
 In this canto Dante enters the Crystalline Heaven 
 of the ninth sphere, and sees and learns about the 
 heavenly hierarchies. As he listens to the discourse 
 of Beatrice he suddenly becomes aware, gazing into 
 her eyes, of the reflection of a thing which he had 
 neither seen nor thought of before. 
 
 I saw a Point 1 whence radiated a light so incan- 
 descent that whatever eye it strikes upon must needs 
 close instantly. Whatever star looks smallest from 
 the Earth would, by comparison, seem a moon. At 
 about the same distance as the circle appears which 
 girdles the light from which it gets its color, when 
 mist is densest, a flaming ring about this Point was 
 whirling. 
 
 So rapid was its motion that it would have sur- 
 passed the sphere which moves most swi ftly around 
 the world; 2 and this was encircled by another, and 
 that by a third, and the third by a fourth, the fourth 
 by a fifth, and the fifth by a sixth. Then came the 
 
 *The Glory of God. Since a point is indivisible, this point 
 of ineffable glory is an adequate symbol of the Unity of the 
 Godhead. 
 
 * Primum Mobile.
 
 DANTE 349 
 
 seventh, and it was of such a vast span that, were 
 the messenger of Juno 3 made entire, it would be 
 too narrow to contain this seventh circle. In like 
 fashion followed the eighth, and the ninth. Each 
 revolved with slower motion according as it was 
 more distant from the Point. The circle nearest 
 to that Pure Spark had the clearest light ; I believe, 
 because it most partakes of Its truth. 
 
 My lady, who saw how greatly I was perplexed, 4 
 said: 
 
 "On that Point, the Heavens, and all nature, de- 
 pend. Observe the circle which is nearest, and know 
 that its motion is so swift because of the burning 
 love which spurs it on." 
 
 Beatrice now discourses to Dante on how it comes 
 about that this smallest, and swiftest, of the circles 
 of the hierarchy, should govern the outermost and 
 largest of the nine spheres which revolve about the 
 Earth. The idea is, that God can be conceived of 
 as the Point, and as such, lacking all spacial dimen- 
 sions, at the center of the universe, and also as 
 that which contains the entire universe. Hence the 
 circle nearest Him is most like Him, and the sphere 
 which is greatest, as containing all the others, is also 
 most like Him. It follows then that the two most 
 
 *Iris, the rainbow, the arc of which, completed, would form 
 a circle. 
 
 * How much he wanted to know more of that at which he 
 was looking.
 
 350 DANTE 
 
 alike should be closest connected, as is the case, 
 Beatrice tells Dante, between the smallest circle and 
 the largest sphere. 
 
 And when she ceased speaking the circles threw 
 out sparks as does molten iron. Every spark danced 
 within the ring of its own fire, and the number of 
 them was exceeding great. And I heard "Hosan- 
 nah," echoing from choir to choir, in praise of that 
 fixed Point which sustains them, and will eternally 
 sustain them, in the appointed place where they have 
 been forever. 
 
 CANTO XXIX 
 
 In the first part of this canto Beatrice speaks of 
 the creation and nature of Angels. The passage is 
 both difficult and beautiful. In the second, she repri- 
 mands the clergy, and says much about the preach- 
 ing that is being spread far and wide. 
 
 BEATRICE 
 
 "On Earth men dream when not asleep, some be- 
 lieving, and others not believing, what they say to 
 be the truth, but of the two these last are more to 
 blame and shameful. You mortals cling to no sin- 
 gle philosophy, so much do you love to make dis- 
 play of learning, and so carried away are you by the 
 thought of it. But this reaps less indignation here
 
 DANTE 351 
 
 on high than the setting aside, or the perversion of 
 the Holy Scriptures. Men forget how much blood 
 it costs to spread knowledge of them in the world, 
 or how greatly, he who conforms to them, pleases 
 God. Every one strives to advertise himself, and 
 creates fancies of his own. The preachers take 
 these to preach on, and pass by the Gospel in silence. 
 One says that the moon turned backward at the time 
 of Christ's Passion, and interposed herself so that 
 the sun's light was cut off from the Earth; others 
 say that the light voluntarily ceased shining and so 
 the eclipse covered the Spaniards and the Indians 
 as well as the Jews. 1 Florence contains not so many 
 Lapi and Bindi 2 as is the number of such fables 
 shouted, year by year, from the pulpits on every 
 side, so that the unhappy sheep return from their 
 pasturage fed with wind ; and not seeing the harm, 
 is no excuse. Christ did not say to His first con- 
 gregation; 8 'Go forth, and preach idle tales to the 
 world/ but He laid bare for them the foundation 
 of truth. It was this alone that sounded from their 
 mouths. The Gospel alone, was shield and lance 
 for them in their struggle to kindle Faith. Now 
 men go forth to preach, with jests and buffooneries, 
 
 1 Reached from India to Spain ; east to west over the whole 
 Earth, is the meaning. 
 
 2 Nicknames as common in Florence then as Dick and Jack 
 are with us to-day. 
 
 'The apostles.
 
 352 DANTE 
 
 and if they can but get a laugh the cowl* grows 
 proud, and nothing more is asked. But in the folds 
 of that hood a bird of such ill-omen 6 has built its 
 nest, that, should the multitude see it, they would 
 understand the sort of pardon they were trusting 
 to." 
 
 CANTO XXX 
 
 In this canto Dante actually ascends to the Em- 
 pyrean and beholds the entire glory of Paradise. 
 Turning his eyes to Beatrice, they are still in the 
 ninth sphere, he bursts forth about her once more, 
 declaring that : 
 
 If all that has, up to now, been said of her could 
 be gathered into a single eulogy, it would fall short 
 indeed for the present purpose. The beauty which 
 I beheld so transcends all human beauty that I be- 
 lieve its Maker can alone enjoy it to the full. 
 
 From the day that I first saw her face on Earth, 
 until this sight of her in Paradise, the power to 
 follow, with descriptive words, has never failed me, 
 
 4 The wearer of a cowl, the preacher. In Cowper's Task, 
 the poet, speaking on this same subject, says: 
 
 "Tis pitiful 
 
 To court a grin, when you should ^woo a soul ; 
 To break a jest, when pity would inspire 
 Pathetic exhortation ; and t' address 
 The skittish fancy with facetious tales, 
 When sent with God's commission to the heart 1" 
 
 8 The devil, in monks* clothing, is what the passage refers to.
 
 DANTE 353 
 
 but from now on my power must relinquish all fur- 
 ther attempt to set forth her loveliness in verse, for 
 no artist can surpass his utmost. 
 
 Such, I leave her to a loftier heralding than that 
 of my trumpet, which is bringing its great theme 
 to a close. With the gesture, and the tone of one 
 who is a leader, she said : 
 
 "We have come forth from the greatest of the 
 spheres into that Heaven which is pure light ; light 
 intellectual o'erflowing with love; love of true good 
 o'erflowing with joy; joy which exceeds all sweet- 
 ness. Here you shall see both of the armies of 
 Paradise. 1 
 
 Indescribable light now blazes forth in all direc- 
 tions; Beatrice explains, saying: 
 
 "That Love which bestows tranquillity upon this 
 Heaven, with such a salutation always gives wel- 
 come unto Itself." 
 
 No sooner had these few words come to me than 
 I realized that I was rising above myself. 2 I saw a 
 river of light, all shimmer and sparkle, flowing be- 
 tween banks that bloomed with marvelous spring. 
 Forth from that river rose living sparks which 
 found their resting place in the flowers that were 
 
 *The Angels, and the Saints; "the spirits of just men made 
 perfect." The former made war against the rebel angels, and 
 the latter against sin. 
 
 1 Above his own faculties.
 
 354 DANTE 
 
 everywhere, even as rubies set in gold. Then, as if 
 intoxicated by the perfumes, they plunged once more 
 into that wondrous stream and as one went down 
 another came up. 
 
 Beatrice, whom Dante at this point calls "Sun of 
 my eyes," says : 
 
 "The river, and the topazes that enter and come 
 out, and all the smiling flowers, are but foreshad- 
 owings of the truth, not that in themselves they are 
 imperfect, but that your vision is not yet so high ex- 
 alted." 
 
 And I saw both the Courts of Heaven. 8 
 
 O splendor of God, through which I beheld the 
 consummate triumph of the realm of truth, now 
 grant me strength to tell how I saw it ! 
 
 There is light on high which makes the Creator 
 visible to that creature which finds its peace only 
 in contemplating Him. The circumference of that 
 light extends so far that its circle would be too 
 great a girdle for the sun. As a hillside is reflected 
 by water at its foot, as if to admire itself, when 
 richly decked with leaves and flowers, so, above the 
 light, circling and rising, on more than a thousand 
 seats, I saw mirrored all those of us who have re- 
 turned on high.* 
 
 'Angels and Saints. 
 
 * The number of mankind who, up to that time, had reached 
 Heaven.
 
 DANTE 355 
 
 To the heart of the eternal and everlasting rose, 
 which opens wide, and rises in tiers, and exhales 
 the odor of praise, unto the Sun that there keeps 
 undying spring, Beatrice, like one who is silent and 
 yet would speak, led me, and said : 
 
 "Behold how vast is the congregation of the white 
 robes! 5 Look on our city, how broad its circuit! 
 Behold our seats so well filled that small is the num- 
 ber of them for whom the empty benches wait I" 
 
 CANTO XXXI 
 
 Then was shown to me, in the form of a pure 
 white rose, that blessed host which Christ, in His 
 own blood, made bride. The other host 1 which, 
 always on wing, beholds and sings the glory of Him 
 who enamors it, and the goodness of Him who 
 has made it so glorious, like bees, which now go 
 down into blossoms, and again return to the hive, 
 descended into that vast and many-petaled flower, 
 and thence remounted up to where their love for- 
 ever sits enthroned. The faces of all were living 
 flame, and their wings were gold, and the rest was 
 of such exceeding whiteness as never snow attained. 
 When they went down into the flower, rank after 
 rank, they bestowed on it some of the peace and 
 
 * 'He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white 
 raiment." Rev. iii :5. 
 
 1 The Saints, forever quiet upon their thrones : the Angels, 
 in everlasting flight
 
 356 DANTE 
 
 ardor which they had acquired in their flying. Nor 
 did this host, so numerous, winging its course be- 
 tween the flower and that which was on high, 2 ob- 
 struct the vision or the splendor, for the light of 
 God penetrates the whole universe, according to its 
 merit, so that nothing can impede it. This safe and 
 happy kingdom, thronged with people of ancient and 
 of modern time, 8 fixed its whole gaze, and all its 
 love, upon one sole point. 
 
 O Threefold Light which in a single star, blazing 
 on their sight, so satisfies them, deign to look down 
 upon our tempest here below ! 
 
 If the Barbarians, coming from the far north, 
 were struck dumb with wonder at the sight of Rome 
 and her mighty works at the time when the Lat- 
 eran towered above everything mortal* with what 
 astonishment must I have been filled, who had come 
 from things human to things heavenly; from the 
 temporal to the eternal ; from Florence to folk just 
 and sane ! B Truly, this, 6 together with my ecstasy, 
 made it a pleasure to hear nothing, and to remain 
 silent. As a pilgrim, refreshed by gazing about the 
 temple of his vow, even then hoping some day to 
 
 * The throne of God. 
 
 The Old and the New Testament. 
 
 *The Lateran was the seat of papal or imperial power at 
 the time when Rome was mistress of the world. 
 
 8 W. W. Vernon quotes Doctor Moore as saying : "I always 
 think that putting Florence as the climax to the other two is 
 one of the most intensely bitter things Dante ever wrote." 
 
 6 Amazement
 
 DANTE 35? 
 
 tell others how it looks, such was I as I traversed 
 the living light, my eyes wandering over the ranks, 
 now up, now down, now sidewise. I saw faces 
 that would move one to love, made beautiful by 
 God's light and their own smile, and actions graced 
 with every dignity. 
 
 My glance had by this time compassed the look 
 of Paradise as a whole, but on no single part had 
 my eyes as yet been riveted. With renewed zeal 
 I turned to ask my lady about matters which were 
 still doubtful in my mind. I intended one thing, 
 and another answered me. I thought to see Beatrice, 
 and behold, an old man, 7 robed like the heavenly 
 host ! His eyes and cheeks glowed with kindly joy ; 
 his bearing, with such gentleness as becomes an af- 
 fectionate father. 
 
 Exclaiming: "Where is she?" he replied: 
 
 "To satisfy your longings, Beatrice induced me 
 to leave my own place. If you will but look up to 
 the third circle below the highest, you will again see 
 her, and upon the throne which her deserts merit." 
 
 Without answering, I lifted my eyes, and saw. 
 her, crowned with the eternal rays which were re- 
 flected by her. From the highest region, where the 
 thunder sounds, to the lowest depths of ocean that 
 mortal eye can penetrate, is not so far as, in that 
 place, Beatrice was raised above my sight. But this 
 
 'The old man is St Bernard.
 
 358 DANTE 
 
 i 
 
 mattered not to me, for her image came down im- 
 dimmed by intervening distance. 
 
 "O Lady, in whom my hope is strong, and who, 
 for my salvation, did endure leaving your footprints 
 in Hell, I now acknowledge the grace and virtue of 
 all those things, which, through your power and 
 your goodness, I have seen. By all the ways, by 
 all the means 8 within your power, you have brought 
 me from slavery to freedom. Preserve in me your 
 own magnificence so that my soul, which you have 
 made whole, may, when it shall leave the flesh, be 
 pleasing to you still." 
 
 Such prayer I made; and she, it seemed so far 
 away, smiled and looked at me ; then turned to the 
 Eternal Fountain. 
 
 And the holy old man said : 
 
 "In order that you may accomplish the entire 
 journey, for the sake of which prayer and sacred 
 love sent me to you, let your eyes range 9 fully about 
 this garden; for looking at it will prepare your 
 vision to rise still higher by the help of God's own 
 light. And the Queen of Heaven, for whom I am 
 wholly consumed with love, will grant us every fa- 
 yor because I am her faithful Bernard." 
 
 St. Bernard now begins to prepare Dante for the 
 
 * Prayers and love of Beatrice. 
 
 * Look at the Saints and Angels which make up the garden 
 of Paradise.
 
 DANTE 359 
 
 final consummation of his vision. He must prepare 
 himself gradually to behold the Divine Essence, by 
 disciplining his sight, first to contemplate the glory 
 of the Saints, and then, above all, that of Alary, "the 
 Queen, to whom this Kingdom is subject and de- 
 voted." As a matter of fact all this part of the 
 poem is steeped in the spirit of Mary's "Faithful 
 Bernard," who, in one of his sermons, calls her 
 the Sinner's Ladder, "whose top passes through the 
 Heavens, until it reaches the well of living waters 
 which are above the Heavens." 
 
 Then follows St. Bernard's first brief address to 
 Dante about the Virgin, and this, by Dante's brief 
 account of what he saw; a thing analogous to a 
 passage of color in Fra Angelico's Coronation of 
 the Virgin, translated, as far as may be, into words : 
 a passage from Dante rendered, as far as may be, 
 which is unbelievably far, into form and color by 
 Fra Angelico. About the works of each, Dante and 
 Fra Angelico, it matters not that more than fifty 
 years intervened between the death of the former 
 and the birth of the latter, there is the attribute 
 of heavenly exquisiteness, which must be seen and 
 felt to be understood; one of the most fascinating 
 and peculiar attributes of Italy's greatest time; at- 
 tribute which, upon the undying and always trou- 
 bled present, descends like a continual benediction 
 of faith and rest.
 
 360 DANTE 
 
 ST. BERNARD 
 
 "Son of Grace, this glad life will never be known 
 to you so long as you fix your eyes only upon its 
 lowest grades, but lift them through all the circles, 
 even to the uttermost, until, upon her throne, you 
 shall behold the Queen to whom this kingdom is 
 subject and devoted." 
 
 I lifted up my eyes ; and as at morning the eastern 
 horizon is more beautiful than that to which the 
 sun sinks, my gaze, climbing from valley-bottom to 
 mountain-top, came finally to a place in the extreme 
 distance that outshone all others. And as the glow 
 is brightest in the east where the sun is expected, 
 and to right and left the light fades away, so did 
 that Oriflamme of Peace 10 seem vividest at the center 
 and to pale away on every side. In that midmost 
 center I saw more than a thousand jubilant Angels 
 with wings outstretched, every one differing from 
 all the others in brightness and in joy. And there I 
 saw the Blessed Virgin smiling upon their ecstasies 
 and songs, a Beauty which was a joy in the eyes of 
 all the other Saints. Had I power of speech equal 
 to imagination, I should not dare attempt the least 
 of her enchantment. 
 
 10 Golden flame, meaning the Virgin.
 
 DANTE 361 
 
 CANTO XXXH 
 
 All absorbed in his delight, that soul of contem- 
 plation 1 willingly became my mentor, speaking these 
 holy words : 
 
 "The wound which Mary healed and anointed, 
 was first inflicted by her, 2 who is so beautiful at 
 Mary's feet. Below, in the rank formed by the third 
 range of seats, sits Rachel with Beatrice, as you see. 
 Sarah, Rebecca, Judith, and she who was great- 
 grandmother of the singer 3 who, in sorrow for his 
 sin, cried, "Have mercy upon me," 4 you may look 
 on in descending order, as I go downward through 
 the rose, petal by petal, name by name. Below the 
 seventh range, as above, from the first to the sev- 
 enth, there is a succession of Hebrew women. They 
 separate the leaves of the flower. They make the 
 partition by which the sacred terraces of the rose 
 are divided in accord with the view of Christ which 
 their faith held. On this side where the flower is- 
 full blown, and every leaf is occupied, are those who 
 believed in a Christ yet to come. On the other side, 
 where the semicircles are broken by empty places, 
 sit those who believed in Christ already come. As 
 on this side, the glorious throne of the Queen of 
 Heaven and the others below her, make so clear a 
 
 1 St. Bernard, whose delight is in contemplating the Virgin. 
 
 1 Eve. 
 
 Ruth was David's great-grandmother. 
 
 4 Psalm li :1.
 
 362 DANTE 
 
 division, so, opposite, does the seat of the great 
 John, who, ever holy, endured the wilderness and 
 martyrdom, and after these, for two years, Hell; 
 beneath him, Francis, Benedict, Augustine and oth- 
 ers are appointed for the division line, circle upon 
 circle, down even to where we are. Consider the 
 profound foresight of God, for one and the other 
 view of faith 5 will help to fill this garden equally. 
 And know, too, that below the range which midway 
 cuts these two upright dividing lines, sit those who 
 are here because of Another's merit, and not for 
 their own. All these are spirits that were set free 
 from the body before they had come to the age of 
 discretion. 6 You can know it by their faces, and 
 their childish voices, if you look at them and listen 
 to them." 
 
 A little further on St. Bernard again speaks. 
 
 "Look now upon the face which is most like 
 Christ's, for its bright radiance alone can prepare 
 you to behold Christ." 
 
 I saw such a rain of gladness pouring down upon 
 her, gladness that had its source among the blessed 
 angels created to wheel and circle in the depth above 
 her, that, all together, what I had seen before less 
 amazed me, nor showed me anything so nearly like 
 to God. And that Angel which long ago descended 
 
 . " Those of the Old and those of the New Testament faith. 
 8 Children.
 
 DANTE 363 
 
 > 
 
 to her, spread wide his wings in front of her, chant- 
 ing, "Hail, Mary, full of grace." 7 Answering this 
 sacred chant, the blessed Host rang out on every 
 side, so that all the Saints became thereat the more 
 serene. 
 
 "O Holy Father, who, for my sake, endures be- 
 ing down here, and leaving the blissful place wherein 
 your seat is everlastingly appointed, tell me, who 
 is that Angel who looks into the eyes of our Queen 
 with such ecstasy that he seems to be on fire ?" 
 
 With such words did I again seek instruction 
 from him 8 who was deriving beauty from Mary, as 
 the morning star from the sun. And he answered 
 me: 
 
 "Confidence and grace, as much as can be in 
 Angel and in soul, are all in him, 9 and this is as we 
 would wish it, for it is he who bore the palm down 
 to Mary, when the Son of God elected to assume the 
 burden of mortality. 
 
 "But now, as I go on to speak, follow with your 
 eyes, and look upon the great patricians of this most 
 just and holy empire. Those two who sit up yon- 
 der, happiest because nearest to the Empress, are, 
 as it were, two roots of this rose. He who sits so 
 close upon her left is the Father 10 through whose 
 
 T Gabriel sings the words that he used for the Annunciation. 
 Luke i :26. 
 *St. Bernard. 
 Gabriel. 
 "Adam.
 
 364 DANTE 
 
 presumptuous tasting the race of man knows so 
 much bitterness. At her right behold that vener- 
 able Father 11 of the Holy Church to whom Christ 
 entrusts the keys of this beautiful flower. And he 12 
 who, before he died, saw all the grievous straits 
 of the fair bride, 18 won with the spear and nails, 1 * 
 sits by him. At the other's side 15 sits that leader 18 
 under whom a thankless, fickle and stubborn people 
 lived on manna. Behold Anna over against Peter, 
 so wrapt in gazing on her daughter 17 that she does 
 not move her eyes as she sings Hosannah. And, 
 opposite the sire of all mankind, sits Lucia, who sent 
 your lady to aid you at the time when you were 
 bending your eyes downward, and were sinking 
 backward. 18 
 
 But because the moments of your dream 19 are go- 
 ing fast, we will stop enumerating, like a good tailor, 
 who cuts the garment to suit the cloth, and turn 
 our eyes toward the Primal Love, 20 so that, gazing 
 
 u St. Peter. 
 
 u St. John the Evangelist. 
 
 "The Church. 
 
 "Christ 
 
 "Of Adam. 
 
 16 Moses. 
 
 " The Virgin Mary. 
 
 18 The time when Dante was returning to sin, and the valley 
 of shadows, and was despairing of the hill-top, all of which is 
 told at the beginning of The Divine Comedy. 
 
 19 The idea is that Dante has made his great journey in 
 spirit, his soul, as it were, moving through the universe while 
 his body remained on Earth and asleep. He is now drawing 
 near the goal, and so the time is short, and the moment of his 
 soul's return to the body, the end of his vision, is near. 
 
 K God Himself.
 
 DANTE < 365 
 
 upon Him, you may penetrate His light so far as 
 is possible. But, lest perchance, beating your wings, 
 you should go backward when you thought yourself 
 advancing, it is necessary to obtain grace through 
 prayer; grace from her who has the power to suc- 
 cor you. Follow me now with such affection as will 
 hold your heart intent upon my every word." 
 And he began this holy prayer. 
 
 CANTO XXXIII 
 
 "Virgin Mother, daughter of your own Son, 
 more humble and exalted than any creature, pre- 
 destined goal of the eternal mind, you are she 
 who did so ennoble human nature that its own 
 Creator did not disdain to be born of it. Renewed 
 in your womb was the Love whose warmth made 
 this rose blossom in eternal peace. Here, to us, you 
 are the high-noon light of Love, and below, among 
 men, you are the living source of Hope. So great 
 are you, O Lady, and of such mighty will, that he 
 who seeks grace, and does not go to you, would have 
 his desire fly without wings. Your loving kindness 
 not only helps him who asks, but many a time freely 
 anticipates the asking. In you are joined, mercy, 
 compassion, magnanimity, every virtue of human 
 nature. Now does this man, who, from the lowest 
 pit of the universe even up to this place, has seen, 
 one upon another, every phase of the life after
 
 366 DANTE 
 
 death, pray that, of your grace, you grant him sucK 
 strength of sight as shall enable him to rise yet 
 higher toward Consummate Blessedness. And I, 
 who never yearned more for my own vision than I 
 ido for his, make all my supplications unto you, 
 praying they be not scant that you will dispel for 
 him every cloud of his mortality so that he may be- 
 hold the Supreme Joy. Further, I beseech you, O 
 Queen, who can accomplish whatever you will, that 
 after so magnificent a vision, you preserve his af- 
 fections pure. May your guardianship subdue his 
 mortal passions. Behold Beatrice, and all the 
 Saints, with hands clasped, join me in this prayer." 1 
 
 Beatrice smiles her assent, and Bernard signs to 
 Dante to look upward. He thereon tells us that his 
 sight, 
 
 becoming pure, was entering deeper and yet deeper 
 into the glow of that Sublime Light which Itself is 
 Truth. 
 
 Thenceforth what I beheld transcends human 
 speech, which must fail before such a vision, as 
 human memory before such excess. 
 
 As is he who sees something in a dream, and, after 
 the dream has fled, holds in mind his emotions, but 
 
 *The nearest approach, perhaps, to that impossible thing, a 
 translation of poetry, that shall itself be poetry, is to be found 
 in Chaucer's version of this prayer of St. Bernard. It occurs 
 in the Second Nun's Tale.
 
 DANTE 367, 
 
 hot the 'details whence they arose, sucH am I, 'for 
 my dream is almost wholly gone, yet in my heart 
 the sweetness that was born of it still lingers. Even 
 so is snow by the sun released; even so were the 
 light leaves that bore the Sibyl's writing, lost on the 
 wind. 
 
 Dante says that he held his eyes fixed upon the 
 light fearing to be dazzled if he withdrew them; 
 that, holding them so fixed, he was enabled to sus- 
 tain the vision. 
 
 Q abounding Grace, througH which I might pre- 
 sume to fix my gaze upon the Everlasting Light, 
 until, within it, I had seen my all 1 
 
 My mind, wholly rapt, unswerving, fixed, intent, 
 gazed, and gazing, was enflamed. In that Radi- 
 ance one becomes such that henceforth it is im- 
 possible for him to consent to turn away for any 
 other sight; because the Good which is the object of 
 the will, is wholly centered on it, and outside of it, 
 that is imperfect, which within is perfect. 
 
 From now on my speech will prove even less ade- 
 quate for recounting what I can remember, than 
 that of an infant who still wets its tongue at the 
 breast. Not because there was more than a single 
 aspect to the Living Light that I was looking into, 
 for it is unchanging; but because my powers of 
 vision, increasing as I gazed, that single aspect 
 changed to me, as I myself was changing.
 
 368 DANTE 
 
 Within the deep clear being of that Exalted Ra- 
 diance there appeared three circles of three colors, 
 and the same dimension. One seemed reflected by 
 the other, as Iris by Iris, 2 and the third seemed fire, 
 which was equally breathed forth by the one and 
 the other. How useless are words, and how hazy 
 beside my conception, and my conception beside that 
 which I saw is so petty that to call it little does not 
 describe it. 
 
 O Eternal Light, that in Yourself dwell apart, 
 and alone understand Yourself, and by Yourself 
 understood and understanding, love Yourself, and 
 smile upon Yourself! That circle 3 which within 
 You appeared to be reflected, as I looked fixedly 
 upon it, seemed to me to hold, painted in its own 
 color, within Itself, our mortal image, because of 
 which my eyes strayed not at all. As the geometer 
 who devotes all his strength of mind to squaring the 
 circle, and can not, by reasoning, discover the prin- 
 ciple whereof he stands in need, such was I when I 
 beheld this new apparition. I wished to see how 
 our image was conformed to the circle, and how it 
 has a place therein, but my wings were unequal to 
 such a flight, had not a flash like lightning struck 
 across my mind, and with it brought my wish. 
 
 Here power for the high vision failed, but already 
 
 *The rainbow, arch within arch. 
 
 * A circle having neither beginning nor end is the fit symbol 
 for everlasting, i. e., eternity.
 
 DANTE ' 369 
 
 my desire and my will were revolving, like an even- 
 moving wheel, driven by the Love which moves the 
 sun and the other stars.* 
 
 * In this final vision Dante's desire is gratified and he finds 
 himself absorbed by, and circling in perfect unity with, the 
 will of God. 
 
 With every rereading of The Divine Comedy, and with 
 every reclosing of this supreme last canticle, one gets a clearer 
 idea, and a deepened understanding of these sentences written 
 by Edmund Gardner. 
 
 "Rarefied, indeed, is the atmosphere we breathe, from the 
 sublime invocation to the Virgin Mother to the fading away 
 of the vision of the invisible, with desire and will swayed 
 perfectly by 'the Love that moves the sun and stars.' The 
 prayers^and aspirations of ages of suffering humanity have 
 passed into it, the adoration and yearning of centuries, the 
 ecstatic meditations of generations of rapt mystics have gone 
 to the making of it; but the music to which it is wedded is 
 that of the new poetry of the modern world." Hibbert Jour- 
 nal, October, 1904. 
 
 And under similar conditions one may realize with increas- 
 ing force the quality of praise which James Russell Lowell 
 bestows on Dante when he says, "so truly Catholic is he, that 
 by ^him the Romanist proves his soundness in doctrine, the 
 anti-Romanist claims him as the first Protestant" 
 
 This is the Dante whose readers increase as time goes on, 
 generation after generation, recruited from nation upon na- 
 tion to listen to the "deep, unfathomable song" which the 
 passing of years only freshens and makes young. 
 
 THE END
 
 INDEX
 
 INDEX 
 
 Abati, Bocca degli, 130, 131. 
 
 Abel, 66. 
 
 Abraham, 66. 
 
 Abydos, 230. 
 
 Acheron : 58, 60 ; crossing of, 63, 2D9. 
 
 Achilleid, The, 207. 
 
 Achilles, 70, 86, 207. 
 
 Adam, 41, 63, 142, 170, 178, 253, 344, 346. 
 
 Adige, 83. 
 
 JEgina, 120. 
 
 .Eneas, 55, 68, 117, 278, 307. 
 
 ^neid, 207. 
 
 Africa, 29. 
 
 Africanus, 240. 
 
 Agapetus, 279. 
 
 Age, The Golden, 233. 
 
 Aglaurus, 189. 
 
 Agnel, 112. 
 
 Agnello, 112. 
 
 Alba, 280. 
 
 Albert of Austria, 13, 14. 
 
 Albert of Cologne, 293. 
 
 Alessio Interminei, 102. 
 
 Allegory, 44. 
 
 Anchises, 52, 307. 
 
 Angelico, Fra, 359. 
 
 Angels : 33 ; creation and nature of, 350. 
 
 Anna, 364. 
 
 Annas, 109. 
 
 Anselm, 135. 
 
 Antaeus, 127. 
 
 Antandros, 281. 
 
 Antenora, 128, 130. 
 
 Ante-Puratory : 149; classes of sinners in, 149. 
 
 Apennines, 156. 
 
 Apollo, 264, 265, 269. 
 
 Aquarius, 111. 
 
 Arachne, 96. 
 
 A r agon, 150. 
 
 Archangels, 33. 
 
 373
 
 374 INDEX 
 
 Archheretics, 76. 
 
 Archiano, 155, 156, 157. 
 
 Arethusa, 113. 
 
 Arezzo, Guittone of, 216. 
 
 Argenti, Filippo, 75. 
 
 Argus, 239. 
 
 Ariadne, 83. 
 
 Aristotle, 65, 68, 202. 
 
 Aries, 76. 
 
 Arno, 108, 121, 122, 155, 157, 298. 
 
 Asia 29 31 
 
 Athens:' art of, 11; "School of," 68; Duke of, 83; 193, 312. 
 
 Atlantic, 119. 
 
 Augustine, Saint, 362. 
 
 Augustus, 240. 
 
 Aurora, 169. 
 
 Avellana, 325. 
 
 Averrhoes, 68. 
 
 Avignon, 292. 
 
 Babel, 182. 
 
 Babylon, 334. 
 
 Bacon, Lord, 191. 
 
 Baptism, 64. 
 
 Baptist, The, 212. 
 
 Barbarians, 356. 
 
 Bear, The Great, 142. 
 
 Beatrice : becomes Dante's guide, 24, 27, 41 ; declares herself 
 to Virgil, 56; 159, 233; makes herself known to Dante, 
 245; on Free will, 275; speaks to him, 246, 247; story 
 of, 16, 20, 23; unveils herself, 252; 265; 346. 
 
 Beethoven, 59. 
 
 Belacqua, 153. 
 
 Belisarius, 279. 
 
 Benedict, Saint, 326, 327, 362. 
 
 Benevento, 151. 
 
 Bernard, Saint: 297, 357, 359, 360, 362, 363; prayer to Mary, 
 365. 
 
 Bernardone, Pietro, 297. 
 
 Berti, Bellincion, 9. 
 
 Blake, William, 239, 319. 
 
 Blasphemy, 82, 88. 
 
 Blood : river of, 85 ; nobility of, 309. 
 
 Boccaccio, 3. 
 
 Boethius, 294. 
 
 Bologna, 6, 108. 
 
 Bonagiunta of Lucca, 215, 216.
 
 INDEX 375 
 
 Bonaventura, Saint, 299. 
 
 Boniface VIII, Pope, 103, 291, 312, 317. 
 
 Bradley, A. C, 235. 
 
 Brennus, 280. 
 
 Brescia, 121. 
 
 Briareus, 182. 
 
 Brutus and Cassius, 136, 139, 282. 
 
 Brutus, enemy of Tarquin, 68. 
 
 Bryce, Lord, 7. 
 
 Buonconte, 155. 
 
 Buoso da Duera, 132. 
 
 Burke, Edmund, 208. 
 
 Byron, Lord, 164. 
 
 Byzantium, 322. 
 
 Cacciaguida, 9, 307, 309, 310, 314. 
 
 Cadmus, 113. 
 
 Caesar, 68, 136, 174, 203. 
 
 Cahorsines, The, 347. 
 
 Cain, 71. 
 
 Caiaphas, 109. 
 
 Caina, 71, 128, 129. 
 
 Calixtus, Pope, 347. 
 
 Callaroga, 300. 
 
 Camilla, 68. 
 
 Campaldino, 155, 156. 
 
 Campi, 310. 
 
 Campo Santo, 235. 
 
 Cana, 185, 212. 
 
 Capaneus, 89. 
 
 Capet, Hugh, 204. 
 
 Capoccio, 120. 
 
 Caprara, 136. 
 
 Carlyle: 2, 4, 5, 22. 38, 39; on Francesca, 73; 232, 290. 
 
 Carthaginians, The, 280. 
 
 Casella, 147, 148. 
 
 Casentino, 110, 121, 122, 156. 
 
 Cassino, Monte, 326. 
 
 Cassius, 136, 139, 282. 
 
 Catalano, 108. 
 
 Cato, 142, 144, 145. 
 
 Cavalcanti, Guido, 79, 80. 
 
 Celestine V, Pope, 104. 
 
 Centaurs, 85. 
 
 Cephas, 326. 
 
 Certaldo. 310. 
 
 Ceuta, 118.
 
 376 INDEX 
 
 Chapman, George, 324. 
 
 Charity, 162, 168, 240, 243, 250. 
 
 Charlemagne, see CHARLES THE GREAT. 
 
 Charles the Great, 8, 282, 315. 
 
 Charon, 58, 63. 
 
 Chaucer, 366. 
 
 Cherubs, 33. 
 
 Chiron, 86. 
 
 Christ: 15, 64; descent into Hell, 84; 255, 298; triumph of, 
 
 329, 330, 334. 
 Christendom, 7. 
 Church Militant, 233. 
 
 Church, Mystic Procession of, 234, 235, 236, 252, 255. 
 Church Triumphant, 233. 
 Cianfa, 112. 
 Cimabue, 180. 
 Circe, 117. 
 Clara, Saint, 274. 
 Clemence, 289. 
 Clement, Pope, 151. 
 Cleopatra, 70, 282. 
 Cletus, 347. 
 Cluny, 106. 
 Colchis, 101, 269. 
 Coleridge, 313. 
 Colle, 188. 
 
 "Consolations of Philosophy," The, 294. 
 Constance, 150. 
 Constantine, 105, 278, 322. 
 Cornelia, 68. 
 Corrado, 167. 
 Cosenza, Pastor of, 151. 
 Cosmography of Universe, Dante's, 28. 
 Cowper, 352. 
 
 Crete, The infamy of, 83. 
 Crucifixion, The, 84, 109, 291. 
 Crystalline Heaven, 348. 
 Curatii, 280. 
 Cyrrha, 265. 
 
 Damian, St Peter, 325. 
 
 Daniel, 212. 
 
 Dante: answers accusation of Beatrice, 248; arts in his time, 
 11; ascent from Hell, 139; banishment, 10; beholds 
 the Rose, 355 ; Boccaccio's treatise on, 3 ; Carlyle on, 3 ; 
 Casella sings to, 148; crosses Stygian marsh, 74; de- 
 scribed, 5 ; Eunoe crossed, 260 ; exile foretold, 312 ; fore-
 
 INDEX 377 
 
 Dante Continued. 
 
 bears, 308; future foretold, 311; Lethe crossed, 249; 
 
 life, 6 ; Paradise, ascent to, 265 ; portrait by Giotto, 4 ; 
 
 Purgatory, entered, 172; Purgatory, preparation for, 
 
 145; time, his, 8; resemblance to other artists, 59; 
 
 Ruskin on, 2; Tennyson on, 2; views the earth from 
 
 Paradise, 328 ; Villani's account of, 3. 
 Dardanus, 68. 
 David, 66, 321. 
 Death, The second, 53. 
 Decii, The, 280. 
 Decretals, The, 291. 
 Delia, 238. 
 Delos, 204. 
 Delphic god, 264. 
 De Quincey, 134. 
 Diana, 220. 
 
 "Diana of the Crossways," 85. 
 Dido, 70. 
 Diomed, 117. 
 Dis, 74, 81, 137. 
 Discord makers, 106. 
 Dominic, Saint: 293, 295; life of, 299. 
 Dominions, 33. 
 Domitian, 211. 
 Don Juan. 164. 
 Dryden, 210. 
 Duca, Guido del, 188. 
 Duera, 132. 
 
 Dunkeld, Douglas of, 324. 
 Durazzo, 281. 
 
 Eagle, The, 280, 317, 318. 
 
 Earth, The, 30, 31, 32, 34, 329. 
 
 Easter, 140, 141. 
 
 Eclogue, The fourth, 210, 233. 
 
 Eden, 30, 31, 41. 
 
 Egidius, 297. 
 
 Egypt, 147, 340. 
 
 Electra, 68. 
 
 Elias, 254. 
 
 Elijah, 116. 
 
 Emerson, 21, 240. 
 
 Empire, Holy Roman, 7, 12, IS. 
 
 Empyrean, 33, 271, 277. 
 
 Eteocles, 116. 
 
 Ethiop. 321. 
 
 Etna, Mt, 89.
 
 378 INDEX 
 
 Euclid, 21. 
 
 Eunoe, 233, 234, 257, 260. 
 
 Euphrates, 259. 
 
 Eve, 142, 168, 361. 
 
 Ezekiel, 239, 240. 
 
 Fabii, The, 280. 
 
 Faith : 162, 168, 240, 243, 250; Dante examined on, 336. 
 
 Farinata, 78, 79, 80. 
 
 Fighine, 310. 
 
 Florence: 6; apostrophe to, 9: apostrophe to, 115; described, 
 
 8; history, 10, 11, 12, IS, 78, 108; 121. 130, 309, 310, 311. 
 Folco of Marseilles, 290. 
 Fonte Branda, 123. 
 Forese Donati, 214, 215. 
 Forest, The dark, 50. 
 Forma, The, 37. 
 Fortitude, 142, 168, 241, 250. 
 Francesca, 71, 72, 73, 121. 
 
 Francis, Saint: 235; his life, 274, 295, 296, 297, 328, 362. 
 Franco of Bologna, 179. 
 Fraud : 81. 82 ; varieties of, 99. 
 Frederick II, 106, 150. 
 Free will, 40, 196, 201, 202, 275. 
 Friars, Jolly, 108. 
 Furies, The, 76. 
 
 Gabriel, 330, 333. 
 
 Gaddi, Taddeo, 4, 
 
 Gaddo, 135. 
 
 Gaeta, 117. 
 
 Galahaut, 72. 
 
 Ganges, 30. 
 
 Ganymede, 170. 
 
 Gardner, Edmund, 140, 369. 
 
 Gascons, The, 347. 
 
 Germany, 7, 10. 
 
 Geryon, 94, 96, 97, 98, 99. 
 
 Ghibelline, 10. 
 
 Ghosts : 36 ; Dante's idea of, 37, 218. 
 
 Giants, The, 127. 
 
 Gibbon, 294. 
 
 Gibraltar, 30. 
 
 Giotto: 4; his tower, 11, 179, 180. 
 
 Gladstone, 270. 
 
 Glaucus, 266. 
 
 God, Throne of, 32, 33; 64, 65, 160, 348, 349.
 
 INDEX 379 
 
 Goethe, 269. 
 
 Good Friday, 40. 
 
 Gorgona, 136. 
 
 Greeks, 117, 211, 276. 
 
 Gregory, Pope, 177, 234, 323. 
 
 Griffon, The, 240, 242, 249, 250, 251, 252. 
 
 Gualandi, The, 134. 
 
 Gubbio, 179. 
 
 Guelf, 10. 
 
 Guido, Count of Romena, 121. 
 
 Guinicello, Guido, 221, 222. 
 
 Guittone, 216. 
 
 Hampton Court, 29. 
 
 Hannibal, 280. 
 
 Hapsburg, Rudolph of, 164. 
 
 Hawthorne, 229. 
 
 Heavens, The, 32. 
 
 Hector, 281. 
 
 Helice, 221. 
 
 Helicon, 237. 
 
 Hell : 24, 29, 30. 31, 43 ; Christ's descent, 84 ; divisions of, 81 ; 
 gate of, 60 ; inscription over entrance, 60 ; order, 81, 83, 
 84 ; souls taken from, 65, 66 ; upper and lower, 83. 
 
 Hellespont, 230. 
 
 Hercules, 127. 
 
 Heretics, 77. 
 
 Hermitage, The, 156. 
 
 Hezekiah, 322. 
 
 Hierarchy, The heavenly, 33, 34. 
 
 Hippocrates, 241. 
 
 Hippolatus, 312. 
 
 Holbein, 92. 
 
 Homer : 12, 64 ; Dante meets, 67. 
 
 Hope : 162, 168, 240, 243, 250 ; Dante examined on, 340. 
 
 Horace, 67. 
 
 Horatii, The, 280. 
 
 Hunt, Leigh, 73, 121. 
 
 Hypocrites, 106. 
 
 Hypsipyle, 101, 221. 
 
 Ida, Mt., 170. 
 Ilerda, 203. 
 Ilion, 52, 182. 
 Illuminating, Art of, 179. 
 Imagination, 22, 239, 316. 
 Indus, The, 320.
 
 380 INDEX 
 
 Innocent III, Pope, 297. 
 
 Intelligences, 34. 
 
 Iphigenia, 276. 
 
 Isaiah, 342. 
 
 Israel, 66, 147. 
 
 Italy, in Dante's time, 7, 10. 
 
 James, Saint, 254, 340, 346. 
 
 Janus, 282. 
 
 Jason, 101. 
 
 Jehoshaphat, 77. 
 
 Jephthah, 276. 
 
 Jeremiah, 15. 
 
 Jerusalem, 30, 36, 206, 340. 
 
 Jews, 109. 
 
 Joan, 155, 167. 
 
 Job, 15. 
 
 John, Saint, 240. 254, 342, 346, 362. 
 
 Joshua, 291, 315. 
 
 Jove, 89. 
 
 Juba, 281. 
 
 Judah, 18. 
 
 Judas, 59, 121, 127, 136, 139, 207. 
 
 Judecca, 136. 
 
 Judgment, Last, 77, 321. 
 
 Judith, 361. 
 
 Julia, 68. 
 
 Julius, 52. 
 
 Jupiter: 32, 221 ; heaven of, 313 ; ascent to, 316. 
 
 Justice, 142, 168. 241, 250. 
 
 Justinian, 13, 278, 283. 
 
 Kings, The Seven, 89. 
 
 Lachesis, 219. 
 
 Ladder, Jacob's, 325, 327. 
 
 Lamentations, 17. 
 
 Lancelot, 72. 
 
 Lanfranchi, The, 134. 
 
 Laodicea, 60. 
 
 Latini, Brunetto : 222 ; Dante meets, 91, 92, 93. 
 
 Latinus, 68. 
 
 Latona, 204, 329. 
 
 Lavinia, 68, 279. 
 
 Leah, 226. 
 
 Leander, 230. 
 
 Lebanon, 242.
 
 INDEX 381 
 
 Lemnos, 101. 
 
 Lentino, Jacopo da, see NOTARY. 
 
 Leo III, Pope, 8. 
 
 Leopard, The, 49, 51. 
 
 Lethe, 222, 233. 
 
 Limbo, 57, 64, 66. 
 
 Linus, 347. 
 
 Lion, The, 49, 51. 
 
 Loderingo, 108. 
 
 Lombard, The great, 313. 
 
 Longfellow, 146, 189, 251, 339. 
 
 Love, Dante examined on, 342. 
 
 Lowell, J. R., 2, 21, 369. 
 
 Lucan, 67, 113. 
 
 Lucca, 134. 
 
 Lucia, 171, 364. 
 
 Lucifer, 30, 31, 41, 127, 138. 
 
 Lucretia, 68, 280. 
 
 Lucy, Saint, 54, 57. 
 
 Lycurgus, 221. 
 
 Macbeth, 134. 
 
 Maccabeus, 315. 
 
 Malebolge, 100. 
 
 Malice, 83. 
 
 Manfred, 150. 
 
 Mantua, 52, 160. 
 
 Marcia, 68, 144. 
 
 Marco Lombardo, 195, 196. 
 
 Maremma, 120, 157, 158. 
 
 Mars, The god, 127. 
 
 Mars : heaven of, 32, 146, 302 ; ascent to, 305. 
 
 Marseilles, 203. 
 
 Marsh, Stygian, 74. 
 
 Marsyas, 264. 
 
 Martel, Charles, 288. 
 
 Mary : 166, 203, 212 ; vision of, 359, 360. 
 
 Master Adam of Brescia, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125. 
 
 Matilda, 226, 230, 231, 236, 258, 260. 
 
 Matthias, 105. 
 
 Medea, 101. 
 
 Mercury, heaven of, 32, 277. 
 
 Meredith, George, 85. 
 
 Metamorphoses, 111. 
 
 Metullus, 173. 
 
 Michal, 176. 
 
 Michelangelo, 269.
 
 382 INDEX 
 
 Midsummer Night's Dream, 21. 
 
 Milton, 23, 28, 191, 281, 319. 
 
 Minotaur, 83, 84. 
 
 Minerva, 269. 
 
 Minos, 70, 144. 
 
 "Modern Painters," 86. 
 
 Mongibello, 89 ; see ETNA. 
 
 Montaperti, Battle of, 78, 130. 
 
 Montefeltro, 155. 
 
 Moon, 32, 268. 
 
 Morocco, 118. 
 
 Moses, 66, 254, 342. 
 
 Murder, 82. 
 
 Muses, The, 269. 
 
 Narcissus, 125, 271. 
 
 Nasidius, 113. 
 
 Nazareth, 292. 
 
 Nella, 214. 
 
 Nerli, The, 9. 
 
 New Life, The, 16, 216; see VITA NUOVA. 
 
 Nibelungen poem, 22. 
 
 Nicholas III, Pope, 104. 
 
 Nile, 281. 
 
 Nimrod, 182, 345. 
 
 Nino, 167. 
 
 Noah, 66. 
 
 Norton, C. E., 16, 19, 316. 
 
 Notary, The, 216. 
 
 Octavian, 160. 
 Oderisi, 179. 
 Odyssey, 119. 
 Olympus, 170. 
 Omberto, 179. 
 Orcagna, 11. 
 Orestes, 185. 
 Or San Michele, 11. 
 Orsini, The, 104. 
 Ovid, 67, 111, 113, 120. 
 
 Pageantry, 234. 
 
 Painting : thirteenth century, 234 ; Purgatory, 179. 
 
 Papacy: 7, 15; degeneracy of, 347. 
 
 Paradise: 40, 42; damned received into, 66, 261. 
 
 Paradise, Earthly, 25, 35, 41, 228. 
 
 Paris, 179.
 
 INDEX 383 
 
 "Parnassus": Raphael's, 68; peaks of, 95 ; 210, 233. 
 
 Paul, Saint, 55, 317. 326. 
 
 Pegasea, 316. 
 
 Penelope, 117. 
 
 Penthesilea, 68. 
 
 Peter, Saint: 105, 173, 254, 292, 317, 328, 336, 346, 364; gate 
 
 of, 54. 
 
 Pettinagno, Pier, 188. 
 Pharisees, 109. 
 Pharsalia, 281. 
 Phidias, 59. 
 Philomela, 170. 
 Phlegra, 89. 
 Pia, 157, 158. 
 Piccarda, 272, 274. 
 Pilot, The Celestial, 146. 
 Pisa, apostrophe to, 136. 
 Pisani, The, 11. 
 Pisistratus, 193. 
 Pistoia, 11. 
 
 Pit, The, 127, 128, 136. 
 Pius, I, Pope, 347. 
 Plato, 65, 68, 202. 
 Plutarch, see ATHENS. 
 Pluto, 229. 
 Po, The, 71, 281. 
 "Poetry for Poetry's Sake," 235. 
 Pola, 76. 
 Pole, North, 30. 
 Pole, South, 31. 
 Polycletus, 175. 
 Polyhymnia, 331. 
 Pompey, 281. 
 Portrait painter, 92. 
 Poverty, the Lady, 296. 
 Powers, 33. 
 Pratomagno, 157. 
 Prayer, The Lord's. 178. 
 Preaching, On, 351, 352. 
 Predestination, 323. 
 Pride, Family, 78. 
 Primum Mobile, 32, 333. 
 Princes, Valley of, 164. 
 Progne, 170. 
 Proserpine, 229. 
 Prudence, 142, 168, 241, 250. 
 Psalmist, The. 176.
 
 384 INDEX 
 
 Ptolemy, 281. 
 
 Purgatory: 25, 31, 32, 36; angel gate keeper, 171 ; as seen from 
 
 without, 171; climatic conditions, 206; ledge, first, 174; 
 
 ledge, second, 185 ; ledge, third, 191 ; ledge, fourth, 200 ; 
 
 ledge, fifth, 204; ledge, sixth, 209; ledge, seventh, 218; 
 
 serpent, 165 ; sins punished in, 169. 
 Pyramus, 224. 
 Pyrrhus, 280. 
 
 Quarnaro, 76. 
 Quinctius, 280. 
 
 Rachel, 66, 226, 361. 
 
 Rahab, 290. , 
 
 Rain of fire, 89. 
 
 Raphael, 59, 68. 
 
 Ravenna, 6, 281. 
 
 Realism, see MEREDITH ; RUSKIN ; the bloody brook, 90, 129. 
 
 Rebecca, 361. 
 
 Rembrandt, 92, 231, 232. 
 
 Resurrection : 144 ; an argument for, 286. 
 
 Revelations, 15. 
 
 Rhine, 281. 
 
 Rhipeus the Trojan, 323. 
 
 Rhone, 76, 281. 
 
 Roland, 315. 
 
 Rome, 14, 52, 68, 198, 207, 212, 278, 292, 356. 
 
 Romena, 121. 
 
 "Romeo and Juliet," 251. 
 
 Rose of Paradise, The, 332, 355, 361. 
 
 Rudolph, 164. 
 
 Ruggieri, Archbishop, 133. 
 
 Ruskin, 2, 86, 222, 324. 
 
 Ruth, 361. 
 
 Sabellus, 113. 
 
 Sabine women, 280. 
 
 Sacrament, Raphael's Disputa, 68. 
 
 Saints in Paradise, 354. 
 
 Saladin, 68. 
 
 Salvation, The Eagle on, 320. 
 
 Saone, 281. 
 
 Sapia, 187, 188. 
 
 Sarah, 361. 
 
 Sardinia, 118, 120. 
 
 Saturn, heaven of, 32, 324. 
 
 Scala, Bartolommeo della, 313.
 
 INDEX 
 
 Sehopentmtier, 22. 
 
 Scipio, 281, 347. 
 
 Sculpture, Purgatory, 175. 
 
 Sea, Red, 282. 
 
 Seine, 281. 
 
 Semiramis, 70. 
 
 Seraphs, 33. 
 
 Seville, 118. 
 
 Shadwell, 176. 
 
 Shakespeare, 2, 22, 29, 92, 134, 201. 
 
 Shelley, 191, 263, 334. 
 
 Shinar, 182. 
 
 Shirley, 318. 
 
 Sibyl, Cumaean, 210. 
 
 Sicily, 150. 
 
 Sidney, Sir Philip, 216. 
 
 Siena, 11, 157. 
 
 Sinon, 124. 
 
 Sismondi, The, 134. 
 
 Sixtus, Pope, 347. 
 
 Socrates, 68. 
 
 Solomon, Song of, 242 ; 301. 
 
 Sordello, 160-168. 
 
 Soul, creation of, 197. 
 
 Space, 33. 
 
 Spain, 118, 203, 281. 
 
 Stars : fixed, 32 ; the four great, 142. 
 
 Statius : 207 ; on the soul, 218; 258. 
 
 Stealing, 82. 
 
 Stephen, Saint, 193. 
 
 Stigmata, The, 298. 
 
 Style, 22. 
 
 Suicide, 82. 
 
 Sultan, The, 298. 
 
 Sun, The, 32, 292. 
 
 Swedenborg, 319. 
 
 Sylvester I, Pope, 105, 297. 
 
 Tarpeia, 173. 
 
 Tarquin, 68. 
 
 Tartars, 96. 
 
 Tartarus, 73. 
 
 Temperance, 142, 168, 241. 250. 
 
 Tennyson : 1 ; "In Memoriam," 72. 
 
 Thaumas, 206. 
 
 Thebes, 89, 207, 211. 
 
 Thebiad, The, 211.
 
 386 INDEX 
 
 Theodoric, 294. 
 
 Theseus, 83. 
 
 Thisbe, 224. 
 
 Thomas Aquinas, Saint. 293, 294. 
 
 Thrones, 33. 
 
 Tiber, 147, 219, 298. 
 
 Tiberius, 282. 
 
 Tithonus, 169. 
 
 Titus, 206, 282. 
 
 Torquatus, 280. 
 
 Toulouse, 207. 
 
 Tozer, 219. 
 
 Trajan, 177, 322. 324. 
 
 Transfiguration, The, 254. 
 
 Tree of Knowledge, 253. 
 
 Trent, 83. 
 
 Trinity, 303. 
 
 Troy, 12, 68, 124, 182, 279. 
 
 Turks, 96. 
 
 Turner, J. N. W., 232. 
 
 Ugolino, Count, 132, 133. 136. 
 
 Ulysses, 117. 
 
 Urania, 237. 
 
 Urban, Pope, 347. 
 
 Usury, 94. 
 
 Utica, 144. 
 
 Valdichiana, 120. 
 
 Var, 281. 
 
 Vatican, 68, 292. 
 
 Vecchio, 9. 
 
 Venus, the goddess, 221, 230. 
 
 Venus, heaven of, 287, 291. 
 
 Verde, 151. 
 
 Verona, 6, 45, 313. 
 
 Villani, Giovanni, 3. 
 
 Violence, sin of, 81, 83, 
 
 Virgil: appearance of, 52; ascent from Hell, 139; declares 
 himself, 52; departure of, 244; guide, 24, 26; limit of 
 his understanding, 202 ; tells how he came to Dante, 56 ; 
 Sordello, 161 ; Statius, 207; why he lost Heaven, 160. 
 
 Virgin, The, 332, 359. 
 
 Virtues, Cardinal, 142, 162. 
 
 Virtues, Christian, 162. 
 
 Vita Nuova, 15. 
 
 Vulcan, 89.
 
 INDEX 387 
 
 Wagner, 22. 
 
 Wigglesworth, Michael. 24. 
 
 William II, "The Good," 322. 
 
 Wolf, The, 49, 51. 
 
 Wordsworth, 121, 263, 266. 
 
 Writing : on, 240 ; see MEEIDITH ; RUSKIN ; SIDNEY. 
 
 Xerxes, 230.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY, LOS ANGELES 
 
 COLLEGE LIBRARY 
 
 This book is due on the last date stamped below. 
 
 Sep 9 70 
 
 AU6171971 
 
 wneaL 
 
 College 
 
 20 FEB79 RECCL 
 
 '80 14 D/ 
 
 REC CL 
 MAY 27 '80 14 DAY 
 
 NOV25'&1 
 REC'D CL 
 
 C'D CL APR 1 9 
 
 Book Slip-35m-7,'63(D8634s4)4280
 
 L005B259763 
 
 College 
 Library 
 
 PQ 
 
 ^315.17 
 B79 
 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 A 001 423 899 2